


Four

by Script_the_Skeleton



Series: Hyrules Across the Ages [4]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Character Study, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), one shots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:41:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 31,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21764704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Script_the_Skeleton/pseuds/Script_the_Skeleton
Summary: A sword that turns the wielder into four? But how does it split the wielder, by personality or by hidden traits?Watch 9 Heroes turn into 36 as they explore the different parts of themselves.Inspired by LinkedUniverse on Tumblr by Jojo. Thanks to the LU Discord for giving me this idea!
Series: Hyrules Across the Ages [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1308371
Comments: 79
Kudos: 511





	1. Boysenberry

**Author's Note:**

> This originally started off of a one shot in my fic In an Era, but it expanded to this. Each chapter can be read alone and they will most likely not call back to another. 
> 
> Enjoy Legend with the Four Sword.

It had been two days since Legend split and everyone couldn’t wait until he was back together, Legend included. He tried to merge back with the Four Sword, but he immediately got a debilitating migraine and had to split again. Now, the four of them, Olive, Lavender, Cobalt, and Berry, were experiencing what Four first felt with his brothers. 

The first few minutes after realization was denial that they were once the same person. Then was denial that they were unique beings. Then there was the short phase where Cobalt wanted to murder the others. Finally, they were in the process of sorting out their thoughts, as they had a weak mind link and would sometime do another’s actions. 

“I SWEAR TO HYLIA!” Cobalt screeched as he dropped his sword on his foot when his hand went to high five someone who wasn’t there. Olive quickly ran away from Hyrule and far away from Cobalt. 

It was incredibly annoying for the rest, but no one could deny that it was interesting to see the different parts of Legend that he kept hidden. Four explained that he was split between his emotions, logic, anger, and calmness, but for Legend it was similar, yet different.

Olive, the closest connection to Green, was more open and happy than Legend normally was. He still had some sarcastic remarks and a not caring attitude, but he seemed to genuinely like everyone. Olive was Legend’s kindness and his affection. 

Cobalt, closest to Blue, was clearly his sarcasm, fighting abilities, and hatred at the world. This was the front that Legend usually put on in front of strangers or the Links when he was tired or scared. Cobalt was Legend’s protective shell. 

Lavender, closest to Vio, did not care at all with what was going on in front of him. If he could stare at a wall forever, he would. On the other hand, if something engaged him, he would be the first to run towards it, as long as he wanted to. Lavender was Legend’s impulses. 

Finally, Berry, closest to Red, was a side that no one had ever seen from Legend before. He jumped at every little sound and always tried to hide in the shadows. His self confidence was lower than Wild’s after he first woke up and his speech just as slow. While it was clear Berry was Legend’s insecurities, the others couldn’t see how he was a part of Legend with how different he was.

So, happiness, hatred, impulse, and insecurity. Or, as Warriors called it, a rowdy bunch. 

The Links’ reactions to the four new/old members of the group were mixed. Olive was well received by everyone, while Cobalt was only really talked to by Four, Hyrule, and Wild. Lavender brushed off most of them, but would still talk to all of them sometimes. Berry would mostly communicate by hiding under his hood and nodding along to whatever the person was saying. Though, he started opening up to Hyrule and Wind. 

Four had his own thoughts on the matter. He personally enjoyed his time with the Four Sword, so he didn’t like how often the Legends would quietly insult their new position. It was odd to see another person wield his sword, and he couldn’t even carry it again until the whole ordeal was over. 

“I agree with Cobalt,” Blue hissed in his mind, “let’s just stab one of them and get back what’s ours!”

“We don’t even split anymore!” Green said, “we don’t need it as much as them.”

“Olive!” Four ignored the voices in his head and looked for the green Legend, who was hiding behind a tree, “what are you doing?”

Olive moved back into the open, “Cobalt is screaming bloody murder, do you really want to be in his line of sight? Other than that, I like trees, what can I say?”

Four smiled, “I’m sure you all will get the hang of being split. It took me and my brothers a while, that’s for sure, and we had to save the world while doing it, so I think you guys are in better shape than we were.”

“That’s the thing,” he shook his head, “we don’t want to be split! This isn’t like the last time when I- Legend was split across three bodies, his mind was still in one piece. Us being here, it feels invasive!”

“Then I can teach you how to control living in Legend’s head,” Four suggested, “it gets a little cramped, but it’s doable.”

“That’s be even worse. We are bringing Legend’s emotions to the foreground, and we are things he’s tried to push down. Having us on the surface will break him and us!”

“Then what do you want?” Four asked. 

Olive stated immediately, “Legend would want to be one. Like this whole mess didn’t even happen.”

“I didn’t ask that. What do you, Olive, want?”

He frowned, “I just want the pain to stop. There’s pain split and there’s pain together. There was a reason that Legend repressed us. I mean, you’ve seen Berry.”

Four mumbled, “it still seems you are still worried about what Legend would want. While you make up him, you are now your own persons. Right this second, I am Four, but my parts coexist with me and are listening even now. When we merged, I didn’t try to push them out, but instead we created something new.”

“That’s great for you,” Olive said sarcastically, “but things could never be like that for us. Cobalt is already upset and he believes that he has been wronged being repressed, which he takes out on us. If Legend ever reformed, Cobalt would be at the wheel and that would cause terrible damage.”

Four reviewed the words over and over in his head, not realizing that Olive was walking away. 

“Thanks, but I don’t see a way out of this. At least being in a living hell isn’t new for any of us. This time I can at least be myself.”

Well, that was a bust. 

“I would kind of like our sword back,” Red murmured. 

Vio shushed him, “we need a plan first.”

“We just have to get them comfortable with each other,” Four thought, “enough that they can stay in the same headspace and not go crazy.”

“Yeah,” Blue said, “but how? Legend wasn’t exactly the best team player.“

“How about we try the easiest one and talk to them,” Green suggested, “Berry will probably be the easiest to convince to try and merge!”

Four nodded, that seemed like the best bet. 

It was not.

His first mistake was dragging Berry away from his and Hyrule’s one sided conversation. That took him out of his somewhat comfort zone and he already wasn’t the best with anyone else. 

His second mistake was everything else. At the slightest mention of reforming Berry shut off. He buried himself in his oversized tunic and hood and closed his eyes tight. 

“No...no,” he said in a quiet voice. 

“Do you not want to be one again?” Four asked. 

“He...” Berry started, “he’ll get mad...”

“Who’ll get mad?”

He pointed to his head, “...mad...that you...met me...he’s ashamed...”

“Oh,” Four gasped, “you’re scared that Legend will get mad that we saw this side of him.”

A nod. 

“We’ll be okay,” he smiled, “Legend may be closed off, but he knows we care about him.”

A shake. 

“Berry, are you worried about yourself? About what will happen to you when you fuse?”

...a nod.

Four explained, “you’ll still be around. For the most part, you won’t have control of Legend’s body, except in extreme cases. But, you’ll still experience and feel everything, and you can always split.”

A shake. 

“What?” What was wrong? “...are you worried about what the others will do to you?”

A nod. 

“...they...they don’t like me...” Berry sniffled, “I’m...I’m weak...compared to them...”

“You’re not weak,” Four reassured, “you have the same knowledge as the others and you are needed to keep them grounded!”

A shake. 

He sighed, “so, if you don’t want to merge. What do you want?”

“...I,” he stuttered, “...I want to...see my uncle...”

It was at that moment that Four realized what exactly Berry was to Legend. Legend had mentioned his uncle before, saying that the last time he saw him was when he was 12. Berry was Legend’s insecurities and his innocence that he lost in his adventures. That’s why he was repressed so deeply and why they never saw this side of Legend.

Four left after Berry refused to communicate further. He told Hyrule where he was and he marched on to find another Legend. He decided to go to Cobalt last, so he ran into Lavender. 

Why was Lavender the easiest to convince to merge? All it took was just asking if he would want to be one again and he agreed. 

“Wait, what?” Four experienced whiplash. 

Lavender glared, “I do not care what happens to me. Whether we stay split or become him again, it’s of no consequence, because right now I am bored enough to do anything.”

He beamed, “great! You’re the only one wh-“

He was silenced when Lavender held up his finger. Four felt his breath stop at the sight of his smirk. He patted his version of the Four Sword. 

“You can’t be the best friend of a merchant and not know how to barter,” he added, “I have something you want, so we need a deal.”

Four glared, “what’s your deal?”

“I am so glad you asked!” Lavender channeled Ravio’s energy, though to a lesser extent, “I know you really want your weapon back, but, here’s the thing, while I’m bored now, I won’t be in the future. So, I propose that we split, pun intended, time with your holy weapon. At some point I will want to stretch my legs.”

Four growled, “no deal! You are only borrowing it anyway.”

Lavender huffed, “you couldn’t take it back if you tried. So, either we have a deal, or you go weaponless until future notice. But I guess you could just make your own weapon, Smithy.”

“As soon as we split again,” Blue shouted, “I am kicking him so hard in the chest!”

Four ignored Blue and caved, “unless in battle, you can have the Four Sword every other day. If you get restless any other time that is not my fault.”

Lavender crossed his arms, “a little weak, considering I hold all of the cards, but I’m generous today. You have a deal.”

He reached out his hand to shake on it, never breaking eye contact while holding a cheeky grin on his face. Four couldn’t wait to be rid of this smug Legend. When one had nothing to care about, he had everything to gain, and that was Lavender’s attitude. 

“This was fun,” Lavender waved him away, “but I do hope you can convince my, how did you put it? Oh, yes! My *brothers* to merge.”

“If I don’t,” Four finally had a reason to smirk back, “our deal still stands. I get my sword back in every battle and every other day. You will all have to be confined in Legend during those moments, just unwillingly and chaotically.”

Lavender didn’t lose his high attitude, “that would do more damage to your friend and yourselves if you allowed Legend to walk with a migraine, so suit yourself.”

It seemed they were at an impasse, Four realized, unless he could convince the others.

Onto Cobalt, he sighed. 

“Maybe he’s calmed down,” Red said hopefully. 

“Or,” Green noticed how Cobalt was bandaging his injured foot while cursing, “at least he can’t chase us.”

“Cobalt!” Four greeted, “can we talk?”

He gritted his teeth, “can’t say no, can I?”

Four didn’t answer and instead sat next to him, “so, I have been talking to the others, about you merging-“

“I know,” Cobalt mimicked him talking, “and you really want your sword back. Well, guess what? Suck it.”

“Thanks,” Four drawled, “can you at least hear me out? I’ve made a deal with Lavender, so sometimes you will have the Four Sword and you can be apart.”

“I don’t care about that,” he hissed as he tightened his bandages, “if you think I will just sit on back while I lose control again, then you have another thing coming to you.”

“That’s not true, you’ll still exist-“

“Save the speech,” Cobalt raised his hand, “I was still aware when we merged again, and I couldn’t control anything but my thoughts. I used to *be* Legend, now I’m thrown to the side like I don’t matter!”

He stood up, “if you force us back together, I don’t care what it takes, I will be in control.”

“Why do you deserve to be in control and not Legend or any one else?” Four stood up as well.

He raised an eyebrow, “why? Don’t you remember when you first met Legend? How cold and irritable he was?”

Legend was slow to warm up to them, that was for sure. The first compliment he gave to anyone was two weeks after they met. 

Cobalt gestured to himself, “that was all me. I’m not like the pathetic excuse of a Hero that is Berry, or as pushed around as Lavender. I’ve always been at the forefront!”

He glared, reaching for his sword, “that is...until you.”

“Me?” Four looked around for a weapon, only seeing Wild’s spoon. Not thinking, he grabbed it. 

“Legend warmed up to you and your little group,” Cobalt growled, “and I was no longer needed.”

“You’re still around, though,” Four pointed out, “so, that means Legend still needs you.”

“You’re right,” he nodded, “he needs me. I don’t need him. I am Legend, no one else.”

“You’re a part of Legend,” Four corrected. 

“Are you saying no one of your parts is more in charge?” Cobalt asked, “you know, your story still lives on in my time. So, I know that a certain green hero was the one in command. That’s simply what I am.”

“That’s not true!” Four and Green shouted together, “it’s an equal team. Green isn’t more me than any of the others.”

“I mean,” Vio pointed out, “Green is more like you than I am. You would have never betrayed us like I did.”

“You don’t lose control on your emotions like me,” Red murmured. 

“He does have a point,” Blue agreed. 

“This is nonsense,” Green shook his head, “just because I’m most visible doesn’t mean Four is like me the most.”

“Guys,” Four whispered, noticing Cobalt’s taunting smile, “this is what he wants. He wants us to fight with each other.”

“How about we fight with him!” Blue roared and took temporary control of Four. Tossing away the spoon, he grabbed instead a boomerang from his pouch and got into a fighting stance. 

Cobalt gave a feral grin, “this isn’t like you, Four! Is this one of your parts? One of the ones that don’t matter?”

“Shut up, you copy!” Blue yelled, “you have no idea what it means to wield the Four Sword!”

“Blue, then,” he realized, “and I think I have a pretty good understanding of this blade. More than you, since you refuse to actually use it.”

Blue huffed and threw the boomerang, Cobalt easily dodging it. Cobalt launched as him and he had to side step quickly. 

“Or is it because Four stopped you from being yourselves?” He asked as he swiped, “is Four afraid that you will realize you are so much more important than he is.”

“Bite me,” Blue snapped and Vio took over, “you’re an idiot. We don’t split often because it becomes harder and harder to merge again. We aren’t as soulless as you to let our one form disappear to stay separate.”

Vio tripped Cobalt and ran to grab a sword. By the time he turned around, Cobalt was about to swing and he just barely blocked it. 

“Besides,” Four’s eyes glinted purple, “we can still take control when this happens. You remember any battle plan ever? That was me. Any fighting? That was Blue.”

He rolled to the side and Red took control. Red smiled and kicked at Cobalt’s knees. 

“Sorry!” He laughed. Cobalt groaned as he face planted, but he quickly got up. 

“But don’t you want freedom all the time?” He asked, “what good is five seconds?”

Red skipped away, “when we’re one, it’s like one family! I am fine with being together or separate, because we are never alone.”

“Cheery,” he swung. 

“Remember every time we met someone new?” Red beamed, “that was me!”

“This proves nothing!” 

Red changed to Green, “it proves everything. Remember when we were lost and I took charge? That was me. The point is, that saying you were the one who Legend showed off the most, doesn’t mean his other parts aren’t just as important.”

“Recall a time you remember even seeing any of the others in Legend,” Cobalt panted, tiring from the fight. 

Four was back in command, “I see Olive in his moments of anything less than annoyed, I see Lavender in his conniving ways, I see Berry in his moments of silence, and I see you when he is at his weakest.”

“I. Am. Not.” He bit, “WEAK!”

“Legend used you as protection. You push away everyone so that they can’t hurt you, but that’ll only hurt yourself.”

“That’s not true, I don’t need anybody!” 

Four frowned, “then why did Legend drop down his guard. He wouldn’t do that unless he wanted to. Just because you are his hatred, doesn’t mean you have to live your life bitterly. You are so much more than that, but that’s all you are showing.”

“You seem to know a great deal about me,” Cobalt tossed his sword to the side. 

“I used to be you,” he recalled back to his days where he used to curse existence for forcing him into the life he lead, “but I changed that.”

Cobalt chuckled, “this is all selfish. You know that, right?”

Four felt guilty, he just wanted his sword back. All of this was petty, sure, but it needed to be done. 

“Whatever,” he was waved off, “I relent. I am nothing but a fighter who’s fighting with himself, so there isn’t a battle I can win. I know when I’m beaten.”

Four shook his head, “if you stop the battle, then you do win. A reason you four couldn’t stay together was that most of you were fighting with yourselves or with each other. Now, you will have a greater chance to live in peace.”

He gave a half smile, “what is there left to lose? Let’s try it.”

It took awhile to get everyone ready. Four went off to yell at all the Links who didn’t step in to stop the fighting and then asked Hyrule to bring Berry. He found Lavender hanging upside down in a tree and Cobalt found Olive somewhere. 

Once they were all ready and standing near one another, they waited to reform... but nothing happened?

“What’s wrong?” Hyrule asked. 

Four muttered, “one of them must not want to merge. It requires everyone to want it.”

Olive spoke up, “it’s not me, if what you say is true, that we won’t be in pain anymore, I’m ready.”

“You already know my answer,” Lavender put his hand on his hip, “our deal, remember?”

“Did we not just fight?” Cobalt glared. 

Everyone looked at Berry, who was feeling extremely anxious. He fiddled with his fingers and had dropped his sword. 

“Berry?” Olive asked, “what’s wrong.”

“...I’m gonna...” he sniffed, “...I’m gonna vanish again...he’s alright with you...not me...”

“We won’t let that happen,” Olive assured him, “Legend can’t ignore any of us any more.”

“I’ll make sure of it,” Cobalt smacked his hands together. 

“Besides,” Lavender agreed, “we will be out in the open before you know it. I still don’t know how Four stays together all the time.”

“Practice,” Blue and Vio thought at once, “years of practice.”

“...are you sure?” Berry took off his hood, “...promise...”

“Absolutely.” “Yeah.” “Can we get going?”

Berry nodded and smiled at Hyrule, “...bye...”

He picked up his sword one final time and Legend burst back into one being. His eyes were closed, but he had a smile on his face. 

“Legend?” Four asked nervously. 

He opened his eyes, “…it’s peaceful.”


	2. Score

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time with the Four Sword
> 
> Originally called Four Score and Seven Years but it didn’t fit with the rest of the chapters titles

“Oops,” Legend winced as he accidentally tripped into Four, who then knocked into Time, who then gave a short gasp of pain. There was a flash of light and Four no longer had his sword, instead four other beings did. Oops, indeed. 

“Not again!” Four moaned and looked at the four Times, “please merge back and we’ll see if there’s any lingering problems.”

“I think there’s already some problems,” Legend recovered from his fall and looked at the new people, “shouldn’t they look alike? And be four of them?

Instead of four Times who could have been quadruplets, there stood three Times who could be somehow related. All of them were severely younger than the leader they knew, too. 

The first Time was about seven years old. He wore a plain green tunic with a too high collar and a brown belt. Why he needed a belt was a question because he seemed to just be wearing tights. His hair was shaggy, like he hadn’t had a haircut in years, and full of dirt and branches. He clung to his cap while it was on his head, as if it was a comfort to him. 

The second Time was a little older, about twelve by the look of it. He wore the same tunic as the seven year old, but with an added belt that was altered to be strap for a sword and the collar fit him more. He had a very shiny sword hanging off said strap and couple of pouches as well. His hair was more clean, but way wilder. His eyes had enormous bags under him, hinting that the last time he slept was never. 

The third Time was a teenager, 17, and looked better than the twelve year old. He, once again, wore the same shirt, with a lower v-neck to show off the white undershirt, and belt, but with an actual sword strap. His hair was longer, being held in a pony tale, and it was overall neat and clean. 

“What’s going on?” The seven year old asked, “who are you?”

“If I’ve been kidnapped again, I swear,” the twelve year old slapped his face. 

The teen simply frowned. 

“Oh, boy,” Legend laughed awkwardly, “you all will definitely not stay put if you merged again. Four?”

Four ran his fingers through his hair, “the Four Sword might be running out of energy, or it’s not meant to be used by so many people. Time looks like he was split by his age, both in body and memory, but that doesn’t explain-“

“Hey!” The twelve year old snapped his fingers in Four’s face, “explain or I stab you. I ain’t picky.”

Four looked taken aback, was this truly their leader? It had to be, but it still perplexed him. 

“You accidentally touched the Four Sword,” he gestured to the identical blades they all held, “normally, it splits the wielder into four copies of itself, but it split you into three different ages. Do any of your remember anything about getting here?”

The three shook their heads. 

“Saria was asking me to meet her in the forest,” the seven year old whimpered, “where is she?”

“Oh,” the twelve year old grumbled, “that would make sense, since I remember this twerp and I recognize this nerd.”

The teen raised an eyebrow at the nerd comment, but said nothing in retort. 

“So, how old was our original form?” He continued. 

“Taking this in stride?” Legend grinned, “I like you. And, honestly, we have no idea. We have a bet going on on how old Time is.”

“Time?” The teen finally spoke. 

“Long story,” Four started to explain, “you see, we’re all reincarnations of the Hero’s Spirit, and we’ve been called together to stop an enemy. Since we’re all named Link, we go by our titles, your’s being the Hero of Time.”

“Hero?” The kid perked up, “I am a hero?”

The twelve year old rested his elbow on the kid’s head, “ignore him, he will not process anything fully for about two more years.”

“So,” Legend inquired, “how old are you guys?”

“I’m seven, and a half!” The kid jumped up and down. 

“Thirty-seven,” the twelve year old, Legend was starting to call Annoyed Time, replied sarcastically, “but, if you really wanna know, I’m physically twelve.”

The teen shrugged. 

“Helpful, as always,” Legend murmured. 

It was at that moment that Wind walked into the area. He was in the middle of saying something before he started choking on his own spit. Once he recovered he pointed to Annoyed Time. 

“Holy sh*t!” He yelled, “Young Link?”

Annoyed Time apparently recognized him too, “Toon Link? What are you do here?”

“What am I-?” He ran up, “you said you had business back in your Hyrule!”

“You know him?” Four asked, “you met Time when he was child?”

“No, wait, what?” Wind choked on his spit again, “Young Link is Time? Oh, no, I have said so much stuff in front of Time that he probably remembers.”

The teen smiled, “I don’t know about this Time, but I definitely remember.”

Wind nodded absentmindedly, “cool, cool. What’s going on?”

“Time touched the Four Sword. It split him into three different ages.”

Wind pointed to an empty patch of grass, “then who’s the ghost?”

“Ghost?” Legend and Four looked at him like he was crazy. 

“I thought we were just ignoring him,” Young Link put his hands on his hips, “you can’t see the armored skeleton?”

“No!?”

“Ha, nerds.”

The skeleton in question that only the Times and Wind could see was a transparent figure in knights armor. Its skull could be seen through its mask and it had a single glowing red eye. It seemed amused that they were only just bringing him up. 

“I always knew you were special,” the skeleton spoke to Wind, “very few can see spirits that they have no connection to.”

“Are you Time, too?” Wind asked. 

The skeleton nodded, “I was the Time you knew, I am what happens after the end. I am called the Hero’s Shade.”

“Oh...” Wind frowned, “how? How could the Four Sword split Time to after his death?”

“Wait,” Legend interrupted, “you’re talking to Time’s ghost from the future?”

“That’s what happens to us?” Young Link complained, “please tell me we don’t die from stepping in the wrong direction in the lost woods.“

The Hero’s Shade shook his head, “that is a discussion that I do not believe Time would like me to start. Let me just say, I lived a long life.”

“Okay,” Wind smiled again, “I’m happy about that.”

“What’s he saying?” Four asked, but Wind shrugged him off. 

“What now?” The teen looked at the sword in his hand, “you said this sword split us, can it put us back together?”

Four winced, “theoretically, yes, but the four parts need to be in sync to do so. Even then, Time might has some of your voices in his head.”

Young Link waved him off, “nothing new, then. But, hey, if Toon’s here, does that mean the Captain is? I wanna see him before we do this fusion thing.”

“Warriors?” Wind grinned, “he’s here! He’s gonna be so excited to see you again.”

Four mourned the loss of his sword as the four Times followed Wind to the other Links. The teen Time took the kid’s hand and guided him. The Shade smiled wistfully and slowly walked after them all. 

“If anyone asks,” Legend whispered to him, “this wasn’t my fault.”

Their entrance to the camp was announced by Wind when he shouted ‘WARRIORS’ at the top of his lungs. Warriors bolted up from his nap and looked around wildly. When his eyes landed on Young Link he had the exact same reaction as Wind. 

“Holy sh*t,” he walked over in awe, “Young Link?”

“Captain!” Young Link shook his hand fiercely, “good to see you again. How’d the war go?”

“Technically still fighting it,” he joked, “why are you here?”

“Time touched the Four Sword,” Four repeated for the millionth time, “and I’m an going to take a nap. Wake me up when you decide to merge again.”

He walked away and Warriors gaped like a fish, “Time was Young Link?!”

“I know, right!”

“Captain,” teen Time nodded in respect, “I want you to know I followed in your steps. I became the Captain of the Royal Guard.”

Warriors realized that he was looking at an older Young Link, “you did? That’s- that’s amazing!”

He was somehow both humbled and honored that the Hero of Time, their leader, became a captain because of their interactions. He was still annoyed that Time never said anything about the war or him knowing both him and Wind, though. 

The conversation was halted when the kid Time yawned. 

“Pathetic,” Young Link rolled his eyes, “getting tired after existing for five minutes? I could go weeks without sleep!”

The comment made the kid’s eyes water and he started to cry. 

“Oh, sh*t!” Young Link cried, “what do I do?”

Teen Time smirked, “say nice things, maybe?”

“Hey! I didn’t expect to make my younger self- who is technically me of the now- cry!”

“I’ll get Twilight!” Wind suggested, “he’s great with kids.”

“Please, do,” Legend’s grin stretched across his whole face, “I would love to see his reaction to this.”

“Hold on, child,” the Shade reached out, “that may not be the best decision.”

“Why not?” Wind stopped moving. 

“I just said yes,” Legend was confused. 

“I’m talking to Shade, shut up!”

The Hero’s Shade spoke, “I feel my being here would be a burden on Twilight, so it would be best not to let him see me.”

“Oh, okay!” Wind ran off, “I’ll get Wild, then!”

“Who was Wind talking to?” Warriors leaned over to Legend. 

“The ghost of Time, I think? The Four Sword split him to after his death, but Wind can for some reason see him.”

“That’s...unsettling.”

Moments later, after Young Link was panicking about the kid and the teen looked on amused, Wind came back. Following far behind him was Wild, who was being pursued by Twilight. 

“Sorry!” Wind apologized. 

“I thought I made it clear that Twilight was not to be told of this,” the Shade glared. 

“Yeah, but the thing is, he was with Wild when I told him to come here. I then told Twilight that he couldn’t come, and when he asked why, I said explained that the ‘Hero’s Shade said not for Twilight to come.’ And then he started running after us.”

Wind beamed innocently. 

“This is revenge, am I correct?”

“Yes, you’re the only Time here who knows fully whats going on, so this is revenger for not telling us about being Young Link.”

“That was your own fault, man,” Young Link chastised, “I literally keep the same hair cut for years.”

“Anyway,” Wind gestured to one of the tents, “want to go pranks some of my friends and your future friends?”

“Absolutely!”

They ran off and Warriors sighed. He commented that he would make sure they didn’t get into too much trouble. It was then that Wild finally caught up to them. 

“Why’s there a golden wolf?” Wild looked at the place of the Shade. 

“A wolf?” Legend asked, “there’s no wolf. Anyway, Wild, here’s the kid.”

Wild picked up the kid and teen Time took Wild to an area where he knew his younger self would like. Twilight then made his way up to them. 

“Twilight,” Legend asked, “are you okay?”

Twilight had his mouth covered with his hands and he looked on the verge of tears. He fell to his knees and reached out to the invisible wolf that he could see but not Legend. 

“Please, no,” he whispered, “it’s too soon...”

The wolf moved its head into Twilight’s hand, trying to calm him. Unless he was a wolf, Twilight couldn’t see spirits, so there was no way to communicate with him. 

“H-how, how did it happen?” He gritted his teeth in fury. 

“Uh,” Legend couldn’t understand why he was so upset, “Time bumped into the Four Sword and-“

“The Four Sword?” Twilight interrupted, “Four!”

He stood up in a flurry and anger and started marching towards Four’s tent. Legend grabbed his shoulder. 

“It was an accident,” he explained, “Time just split into four different ages, but he’s fine.”

“What?” Twilight calmed down, his breathing slowed.

“Why are you so angry? Time just became that kid, the teen, somebody named Young Link that Wind and Warriors somehow knew, and I think a ghost. At this point, I think you guys are messing with me, because I don’t see a wolf or a ghost.”

Twilight looked back at the golden wolf, “can you please leave for a moment.”

“Sure,” Legend shrugged, “I’m going to see what Young Link and Wind are doing.”

When Legend was out of sight, Twilight silently shifted into a wolf. He could now see the Shade in his true form, though it flickered between that and his wolf form. 

“My child,” the Shade looked down at him. 

“You knew, this whole time?” Twilight whimpered, “you knew who I was when you helped me on my quest. Why didn’t you say anything?”

“To be fair,” the shade tried to make a joke, “you never said a thing to me that I would die and teach you.”

Twilight swallowed awkwardly, he had a point. 

“So,” he asked, “you’re fine, you’re not actually dead, yet?”

The Shade shook his head, “the Hero of Time is nothing but defined by his life. The Four Sword deemed Time’s quantifiable qualities by when he was a child, after his adventures, when he started to calm down, and when he died. I am a part of him that has been lingering over his head since his mother abandoned him in the forest.”

Twilight huffed, “you act like you aren’t the same person.”

He tilted his head, “we are not. I have experiences he does not and that makes us entirely two separate beings. Even if the four of us were to merge, I would think that Time would remember none of this.”

“That’s probably for the best,” Twilight agreed, “but I do have one question.”

“What is it, my child.”

“How old are you right now as Time?” 

Twilight never got his answer, as the Shade burst into laughter and refused to say anything else on the matter. The two sat for a little while longer and chatted. Every once in a while, the Shade would slip a fact about his future, like how he and Malon only had daughters and that were a few more wars in his Hyrule during his life. 

It was a pleasant conversation that Twilight thought he would never get again. Though, he was still excited when it was over. The idea that Time could die at any moment and become the Shade scared him. Out of all the Heroes, Time was the most fragile in Twilight’s opinion for that reason.

The three Times came back. Wind and Young Link were snickering out of Hyrule’s tent with Warriors grinning behind them. Wild walked over with the kid Time in his arms and he seemed much happier. The teen Time was talking to him. 

“At this point in my life,” he smiled vacantly, “I’m considering proposing.”

“Really,” Wild teased, “ain’t you a little young?”

Teen Time chuckled, “I am much older than I seem, and I’ve known Malon for ages.”

“Well, it works out well for you.”

They arrived with everyone else and Wild waved at Wolfie after he sat the kid down. Four walked out of his tent yawning. 

“Ready?” He asked, “this might be a little weird, considering one of you is a ghost, but no other way to test it.”

“Wait!” Young Link shouted, “I know none of this matters, because we already existed and our time is gone and Time won’t remember anything, but I still want to know what we look like in the future/past.”

“I can show you,” Wild pulled out a photo of Time on his Sheikah Slate, “this was when Time and Twilight went fishing.”

Young Link glared at the photo the second he saw the strange markings on Time’s face. The teen also looked confused, though not as angry. 

“Bastard!” Young Link shrieked, “he used its full power!”

“When does this happen?” The teen Time looked to Wild, “when does Time put on the mask?”

“He’s always had those markings,” Wild shrugged, “we thought they were tattoos.”

“They are certainly not! If you ever see Time put on the mask again, kill him for me.”

“A little harsh, but okay?” Wild thought he was joking. 

The Shade looked away from everyone during this.

“Great!” Four moved the three Times together and the Shade was already in position, “now, you just have to think it and you’ll merge.”

“Peace, Toon,” Young Link waved. 

“Bye, Mr. Wild,” the kid beamed. 

The teen nodded thanks and the Hero’s Shade patted Twilight on the head. They then all looked to each other and a light shone once more. Time was back together in one and he blinked at the sun. 

“What happened?” He asked shakily, he was suddenly very tired. 

“Nothing much,” Four lied. They entered a silent agreement that no one was to tell Time what happened. It was an easy secret to keep, since only half of them knew what happened, and Wind was later bribed to not speak. 

A little while later, after everyone left, Twilight turned back into a human. Without warning, he hugged his father figure. Time hugged back, not knowing the reason, but he felt awfully nostalgic. 

“I’m glad your here,” Twilight whispered. 

“I’m glad you are also here, pup.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reason Twi and Wild see the wolf form is because they are related to Time, so they can see him just not his true form. Wind can see the shade because he sees ghosts in Spirit Tracks. 
> 
> Tiny Time has no idea what’s going on, he still thinks he’s kokiri, so he doesn’t believe that these people are him.


	3. Biome

Wild was ricocheted backwards from recoil as his last weapon broke. He swore and looked around for another weapon that he could use. 

“Don’t you dare,” Time saw him looking at a Moblin’s club that was still in use. 

“What else can I use?” Wild shot back. 

The monsters were surrounding them and a few of the Links were already knocked down. Wild had been protecting the still forms of Four and Hyrule for the better part of half an hour, switching in and out of weapons, but now…there was only one option left. 

Without any other choice, Wild pulled the Four Sword away from Four’s weak grasp and charged.

Four’s eyes started to open as he was buffeted suddenly by a strong wind. Through his haze, he made out a soaring figure above him, shadowed against the sun. He saw two other figures fighting in front of them, cleaning out the rest of the monsters. 

“It’s alright,” he heard a calming voice whisper to him as they forced him to drink a potion and lightning striking nearby, “the winds will blow a little softer now.”

What? Four processed that he was missing his sword when he passed out once more.

A little while later, Four awoke. For good, this time. 

“That was stupid, Cub!” Twilight was shouting outside the tent, “you should’ve grabbed Hyrule’s sword if any.”

There was a scuffle, with only Twilight making noises. Four quickly got up and moved to leave the tent. 

“Calm down!” Wild’s voice was shaky, it was also pitched awkwardly, going into a falsetto, “Twi, it was the only way. Hyrule was too far!”

“Fine, just merge before Four wakes-“

“Not again,” Four groaned when saw four Wilds, “you guys just can’t leave my sword alone.”

“It was an accident, promise,” the high pitched Wild ran over to him, “we’ll merge as soon as we can.”

Four took note of the different Wilds. The one closet to him wore the Gerudo outfit that they had teased him about. He had his hair in a braid falling over his left shoulder and a veil covering his face. A pink flower rested on the back of the cloth that covered his head. If Four didn’t know any better, he would have thought he was a girl. On his back was a scimitar and a beautifully crafted shield.

There was one annoyed Wild standing off to the side of Twilight, all the while glaring daggers at the shapeshifter. He wore some winter clothes dyed a royal blue and purple, but he didn’t seem hot in the summer weather. His hair was in a bun with his side strands becoming two braids, decorated with multi-colored ribbons. He had a bow on his back and a quiver at his hip. 

The third Wild, who was standing behind Twilight, wore pants similar to the Gerudo Wild, except with added greaves and golden boots, if that was what they were. His chest was mostly bare, with only some arm braces and a spaulder. His hair was spiked up in a high ponytail, it being ten times shorter than normal with the ends burned off. He had a sword on his back that was bigger than him. 

The fourth and final Wild, who was sitting away and looking through one of his diaries, wore Zora armor. His face was covered by a helm that mimicked the fins of a Zora perfectly, so he couldn’t make out his face. He was holding onto a trident with his free hand, his grip was strong enough to break stone. 

Four noticed that any version of the Four Sword was missing.

“Where’s my sword?” Four ask calmly, but on the inside Blue was calling for blood. 

Gerudo Wild’s eyes widened before looking down, guilty, “that’s the thing, we haven’t seen it since splitting. Twilight and…other me?...have been fighting about it since the battle ended.”

“Great,” he drawled. 

“We’ll never take it again,” Gerudo Wild swore, “I am so sorry, but I don’t think we broke it…at least I hope not.”

“It’s okay…Wild?” He shook his head, looks like they needed even more nicknames. 

“You can call me Vai,” Vai told him, “that’s what everyone calls me, that or Little Vai. Though, Urbosa used to call me Desert Flower.”

“Others?” Four questioned, “wouldn’t they have called you Link?”

Vai froze, “that’s a story for another time.”

“Is no one questioning why a part of Wild is in drag?” Warriors called from across the area. 

“Is no one questioning why Warriors always seems to be hiding from women yet can’t ever find a date?” Vai snapped back out of nowhere, highly defensive. 

“Ha!” Legend slammed his hand against his leg in a laugh. He calmed down and smirked. “What? Like none of you have crossdressed before?”

“You have too?” Vai’s eyes sparkled. 

“Maybe,” Legend shrugged, “it was probably for different reasons than you.”

“Cub?” Twilight narrowed his eyes, “isn’t vai Gerudo for g-“

“Enough about me!” Vai interrupted, “the other mes still don’t have names.”

“Yeah,” the short haired Wild smiled, “can’t leave all the fun to he-them.“

“Well,” Vai bounced over to him, “we could call you Voe, but isn’t this what we wore on Death Mountain?”

“You wore this on Death Mountain?” Four looked at how little he was protected from the intense heat of such a place. 

He shrugged, “better than the fire proof armor they have. I’d much prefer to drink those potions then be walking in a tin can that is heavy enough to beat a Goron in wrestling.”

Twilight nodded that like was a fair assumption, but Four had no idea what any of that meant. 

“Just call me Fire,” Fire took Four’s hand and shook it viscously, “‘cause I am always smoking.”

“An ego,” Legend remarked, “didn’t know Wild had it in him.”

“No,” Fire shook his head, “I mean that literally. All the times that I’ve been on fire at Death Mountain is astounding.”

“That just leaves you two!” Vai clapped and pointed to the final two Wilds. The Wild in winter clothes said nothing, refusing to look at anybody. The Zora Wild looked up for a moment before sighing. 

“Leave me out of this,” he said so quietly that Four wasn’t sure he had heard him correctly. 

“Oh, yeah,” Vai deflated, “it’s probably best if we leave him alone.”

“Wait, really?” Twilight raised an eyebrow, “I don’t think-“

“Twi,” Vai stated plainly, “that’s me in Mipha’s tunic, with her weapon. You know what that means.”

“I understand,” he nodded his head, but called out to the Zora Wild one last time, “we can talk whenever you need to, Cub.”

He gained a small nod in return, and also a flinch, oddly enough. 

“Let’s just call him Rain,” Fire suggested, “gets this to move along.”

“And that leaves you, Mr. Grumpy-pants!” Vai bopped the winter Wild on the nose, who stood still. 

“I heard a scuffle earlier,” Four started, “who were you fighting, Twilight?”

“Him,” Twilight glared at the winter Wild, “he refused to look at me and tried to walk away. He’s certainly the stubbornness of Wild.”

“That’s not it at all,” Fire shook his head and leaned one arm onto winter Wild, “so you know how were all made by our environments? Like how Twilight says y’all, which is weird, by the way, or Warriors can’t get a date.”

“Why is this a shot at my love life?!”

“Us four,” he gestured to the four Wilds, “are based off our surroundings. Desert, Mountain, Ocean, and Tundra. In the mountains, I was free to be as loud and as blunt as I wanted to be, so that’s who I am. Rain was pushed around and loved at the same time at Zora’s Domain, which lead to him being closed off, except to a few.”

“And me!” Vai smiled before frowning, “at Gerudo Town they treated me with respect, made me feel like a person, like a w-anyway. I’m happy because that’s how the desert made me feel. As for Mr. Grumpy, you can thank Revali for that.”

“Revali?” Twilight questioned, “I thought he was your friend.”

“For the most part, that was a lie,” Fire admitted, “this guy right here only knows the cold rudeness of the tundra, especially from the people who lived there. You could do anything to him and he would take it, until he would eventually s-“

The last Wild’s eyes sparked as he moved at the speed of light. He grabbed Fire’s arm and flipped him into the ground. He then walked away, nary a word being said nor a sound being made. 

“S-snap,” Fire heaved, “that was my bad.”

“Fire!” Vai helped him stand up. 

“I’m fine,” he took the help, still, “I say we name him Glacier. He isn’t going to say anything against it.”

“Now what are we going to do about my sword?” Four crossed his arms, “that is pretty integral to this whole nonsense and, unless we find it, you four could stay separated forever.”

“That wouldn’t be too bad,” Vai mumbled. 

“Yes, it would,” Twilight already had a headache dealing with Glacier, and the others would soon cause trouble. 

“Vai,” Fire whispered, “this would be a good time to talk to Time.”

“But-“

“Now, please,” he held his ground. 

“…yes.” Vai walked away to find Time for whatever reason the two were talking about. 

“What was that about?” Twilight asked, watching as that Wild went. 

“We have to be in sync to become one again, right?” Fire pointed out, “even if we had the sword, Wild is too cluttered of a person to be split apart and then put back together. Let’s look for the Four Sword, and in the meantime make sure we’re ready to merge.”

Four nodded, that was the best possible option. 

“I’ll take Rain,” Twilight decided, “in a little bit when he’s more opened to talk.”

“I’ll take Glacier,” Four agreed.

“And I’ll sit here,” Fire grinned, “not causing any trouble. Been awhile since I could relax.”

-

“Time?” Vai called out through the crowd of the other Links, “Time?”

“Wild?” “Still split, then.” “Why is he dressed like that?”

Ignore them, Vai thought with a shudder, find Time, find Time. 

“Time!” Success, he was sitting down with his eyes closed, but he wasn’t sleeping. 

“Wild?” He opened his one good eye, noting the attire that the Hero of the Wild wore. 

“It’s Vai, actually.”

“Isn’t vai Gerudo for-“

“Yes, it is,” she frowned, “can we talk?”

Time gestured to the spot time to him, offering her a place to sit. Vai took it and refused to look him in the eye. 

“On my adventure,” she began, “I found out a little about the Hero of Time and the Princess of Destiny. Specifically, I learned about Sheik. I wanted to know if, was Sheik, the Princess…”

Vai trailed off, thankful for a veil to hide her face. 

“You wanted to know if my Princess was like you?” Time finished for her. She nodded. “All I can say is that sometimes we have a Queen on the throne, sometimes a King, but it’s a hushed up secret.”

“Oh,” she sunk even lower. 

“There’s nothing wrong with that, though,” Time assured her, “in my time, people are not as accepting, so that’s why my Princess, or Sheik, keeps it secret. From what I’ve heard of your Hyrule, they are very accepting.”

She nodded slightly, “the Gerudo didn’t care that I was actually a man, and Bolson didn’t treat me any different when he learned.”

“Then you have nothing to fear,” he smiled. 

“I’m still scared,” Vai played with her wristlets, “if we merge then I can’t be myself.”

“Does Wild not feel the same way as you?” 

She shook her head, “no. I’m the one that comes out when we go to Gerudo Town. Wild is mostly a man, but he fluctuates every now and then between how extreme he feels like one. Even then, when I want to come out, I can’t unless I’m at Gerudo Town. That’s why…that’s why I’ve been hiding the Four Sword.”

She reached into her Sheikah Slate, which was the only thing that every Wild had, and swapped her scimitar for the Four Sword. She was embarrassed that she hid it, but so did everyone else. 

“You lied to Four, then?” Time noted. 

Vai smirked sadly, “I lie to everyone, that’s what part of Wild I am. I lied about this and I lied about being a girl to the Gerudo-“

“No, you lied to yourself about being a man,” he interrupted, “if you truly felt like a woman at the time, then you were one.”

Vai was speechless. She tossed away the sword and rammed into Time for hug. He sat there silently as she cried into his armor.

Once she was done, Vai hesitantly picked up the Four Sword. 

“I guess I have to go away anyhow,” she murmured, “but at the least I know I’m me.”

“You know,” Time stood up, offering her his hand, “if you ever want to come out as Wild, you can. We can protect you from anyone who is too arrogant to see you could kill them the moment they said something against you.”

Vai laughed, “really? It’s been so long since I’ve been able to kick some of those people around, much less have someone with me.”

“Wild needs to be whole, and you are a part of that. It was wonderful to meet you, Vai.”

“You too, Time.”

-

“Hey, Rain,” Twilight stood next to the Zora Wild, “you good?”

It was dinner time and Vai had already returned from talking to Time with a big smile on her face. She had told them her situation and pronouns and happily started to make some grilled hydromelons. She also revealed that all the Wilds were hiding their Four Sword in the slate, but it wouldn’t be any good until they all wanted to merge. 

Fire was helping Vai with the, well, the fire. After losing sight on Glacier, Four ran off to find him. Twilight decided now was the best time to speak to Rain. 

Rain had stopped reading the diary in his hands and was now using the trident for support. He looked melancholic and sad, a little how Wild always looked when he remembered something. 

In response to his question, he shook his head slightly. It was good that he was at least communicating, unlike the other Wild. Twilight pushed the thoughts of Glacier out of his mind.

“‘m sorry,” Twilight said, “is there anything I could do, Cub?”

Rain flinched before shaking his head. 

“Oh, do you want me to get you some food? Vai is almost do-“

“Go away,” he snapped. His hands shook as his grasp on the trident became weaker. 

“Cub,” another flinch, “I understand if you want to be alone, but I think you need to talk about this. You are Wild from Zora’s Domain, didn’t you have good memories from there, too?”

Rain made himself smaller, “they hate me over there.”

“What about Prince Sidon? You talk about him all the time.”

His hand stopped shaking and Twilight found a trident’s middle prong nearly touching his throat. Twilight was grateful for the steady hand, because one fowl move could leave him with a cut. Rain glared at him from under his helm. 

“Don’t say his name,” he gritted his teeth. He flipped the trident around and pushed Twilight away with the blunt end.

What is with him? The Wild they knew loved to go on about Sidon and how beautiful Zora’s Domain was. He thought Glacier was the cold one. 

“Alright, I won’t,” Twilight didn’t leave, though. Instead, he walked to the side of Rain and sat down. 

“What are you doing?” Rain tapped him with the bottom of the trident, a weak way to make him move. 

“If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine,” Twilight smiled up at him, “but you don’t have to be alone.”

Rain started to walk away, he then saw Vai and Fire waving at him, offering to let him cook with them. Other Links were arriving near the fire now, dinner was upon them. Having no choice if he wanted to be alone, Rain chose the lesser of two evils and sat by Twilight. 

“Welcome back,” Twilight smirked. 

They sat there, Rain dissociating and Twilight watching him out of the corner of his eye, for the better part of an hour, silent. The Links all finished dinner and Fire brought them some food, but neither of them moved. Eventually, they were completely alone again.

After a while, Rain sighed, “why are you still here?”

“Because I am worried about you, Cub,” another flinch once again, “why do you keep flinching? That’s what I’ve always called you.”

“That’s what you called Wild,” he grumbled out of nowhere. 

“What was that?”

Rain stabbed his trident, prongs first, into the ground harshly and growled downward, refusing to look Twilight in the eye. 

“You can cut the act,” he hissed, “you are only here because, without me, Wild, your precious Cub, can’t come back. You don’t care about me, so stop pretending that you do.”

“C-Rain,” Twilight stood up, “that’s not true. I care for you because you are my friend.”

“You are friends with Wild, not me,” Rain insisted, “this always happens. People confuse me for someone I’m not. I am not the Hero from 100 years ago, I am not Wild from 1 day ago! I. Am. Me.”

“You are you,” he nodded, “but you are still Wild, that makes us friends already. We saw you split-“

“And the Zora saw the same boy seduce their Princess,” Rain sneered, “you want to talk about Zora’s Domain? When I was there, I was hated, abhorred, for allowing Mipha to die, but I didn’t even do that. Then…you want to know about Prince Sidon?”

Honestly, Twilight was regretting bringing him up. He should have expected this part of Wild to lash out, when nothing held him back like any of the other times he mentioned his past. 

“I thought he was different, that he cared about me,” he continued, “but then he gave me this-“

He pointed to his armor. 

“-his dead sister’s armor, crafted for her dead lover,” he wished he was wearing anything but that, “clearly, he only remembered me as the naive boy who had miraculously come back to life to save everyone! Bull!”

He quieted down, took his weapon, and started to walk away. He grabbed his arms in an attempt to close the world out. 

“And now it doesn’t even matter,” he whispered, “because that was Wild and not me.”

Twilight grabbed his shoulder, “it does matter. Whether you believe it or not, you have always been with Wild, controlling his actions. Otherwise, why are you upset at all with the Zora or Prince Sidon? That was Wild, they haven’t even met you.”

“They, they would think I’m him,” Rain turned around, tossing his hand off, “even dying couldn’t make them think otherwise.”

“But why are you upset right now and not when, if ever, that would happen?” Twilight urged him to think about where his feelings were coming from. Anyone who touched the Four Sword didn’t magically gain four new people in their heads, they had to come from somewhere. “If these emotions stem from Wild’s memories, then I think that makes you Wild. If you recall, Wild also had a hard time believing that he was the Hero all those years ago.”

“He did,” even though he said it slowly, Rain stated it like he knew it was true, “that…that was me…I’ve always been here, always been…me…”

He sat down his trident and removed him helm, revealing his hair in a braided bun, decorated with silver bands. Rain looked at him with tears in his eyes. 

“I am me,” he said simply, like he couldn’t believe it. He said it before, but never had it felt so real until this moment. 

Twilight hugged, “yeah, you are, Cub.”

-

“Where are you?” Four huffed and scanned the tree tops. A while ago he had spotted Glacier hopping, or somehow soaring, between tree to tree, going somewhere, but he had lost sight of him. He just took off randomly and no one knew why, not even his other parts. “Glacier!”

Thunk! An arrow landed in a tree next to him, narrowly missing his hood. Four glanced at the arrow, it was Wild’s. He looked around for where it would have been fired from and saw Glacier leering at him from the trees. 

“Finally,” Four called up to him, “what are you doing?”

He didn’t give a response, Four didn’t expect him to. 

“Can you at least come down here? We need to talk!”

He didn’t even move. Man, he was annoying, he thought. 

“You know, just because I’m short, doesn’t mean I can’t climb after you! I’ve climbed taller things.”

Glacier didn’t seem impressed.

Four frowned, he was seriously going to make him climb up to him. He pushed up his sleeves and started going up the branches one by one. By the time he reached the top, though, Glacier was already gone. 

-

He ran, he leaped, he flew across the woods. Using a fraction of Revali’s Gale to boost himself over the larger gaps. 

He needed to keep running, get to higher ground. Higher ground was safer, no monsters, no Yiga. He could see farther, see the danger, that he could then run farther from. 

If there was one thing he learned, it was to trust nobody. Everyone in the world was cold, they only looked out for themselves and no one else. They only made alliances to backstab the person later, no other reason. Revali only gave him his powers because he needed him to save his people, too bad it was of no use to anyone but himself. 

The world being cold was alright, though. He was just as cold and heartless as anyone else.

“Glacier, wait!” That man was coming after him again, he thought the warning shot would have been enough to scare him away. 

He looked back to see the man wrapped in some cloak that acted as his Revali’s Gale, but there was no one he could catch up to him. He ran faster. 

“Why are you running?!”

Faster, faster! Night was falling and he would have less visual on any monsters that would show up. He needed to get higher. 

“The others will start to worry!”

Why was he still following him? Why was he spouting lies? That group had nothing to gain from him being there, they were strong enough without him. That’s why he left, it would only be a matter of time before they turned their backs. 

“Glacier!”

Why was he still here?! He jumped, spun in midair, and slowed down time. Pulling out his bow, he would make sure this man left him alone. The man’s eyes widened the arrow flew right at him.

With fast reflexes, the man moved to dodge the arrow, but all he managed to do was lose his footing on the tree. The man wobbled and fell to a lower branch before catching himself. 

He smiled, that was close enough, the man would either fall and die or meet his end to some wolves. His aim needed improvement, still, it had been so long since he’s fired at another person. 

He was about to continue running when something stopped him. An unknown force commanded him to look back and see what had become of the man. He leaned over to see the man attempting to climb back up, but his branch was too small and there were no other footholds. He would fall any minute. 

“Glacier,” the man raised his hand, asking for help, “please.”

Why did he keep calling him that? He was supposed to have no name, do his job, and then leave. He should be silent, emotionless, kill ruthlessly, and not interact with anyone else. A name was not needed. 

He tried to leave once more, but the man’s voice froze him in his tracks. 

“What are you running from?” Danger, monsters, enemies. “I am just trying to help.”

No one ever offered help unless they wanted something in return. He had nothing to give. He went to leave one more time, but that was when the branch broke.

The man screamed and his protective urges flared. Without thinking, he dropped down to from the trees and grabbed the falling man. Pulling out his paraglider, he slowed their descent and hit the ground softly. He sat down the man and was ready to run. 

“No!” The man grabbed his hand, “stop it.”

He needed to run, his use was complete. The man wouldn’t want him around now and he needed to flee. He needed to…

His brain slowed down and processed for the first time since he first saw light. 

This man, no, Four wouldn’t hurt him. They were allies, they were friends. They were strong enough to live without him, so that’s how he knew he was safe. If they hadn’t betrayed him yet, then they weren’t going to. 

He was fine. He didn’t need to run. He sighed. He didn’t want to live like this, panicked and callous, he wanted to be one again. 

He ignored Four’s questions and walked back to the others on his own. 

-

“You guys ready?” Four asked the next morning, when all the Wilds were assembled. 

“Yep!” Vai had her Four Sword ready and had it leaning on her shoulder. 

“I was born ready,” Fire grinned, “literally, I’ve had no qualms about merging from the beginning. It was nice to hang around, though.”

“Yes,” Rain said shakily, summoning his Four Sword. He didn’t sound it, but he was more confident than he had ever been. 

Glacier nodded sharply, Four Sword in hand. 

“Then, you’ve seen how it’s done.”

A flash of light and the four Wilds were gone, replace by a very happy single Wild. 

“I’ll take that,” Four swiped his blade back, he was never letting it out of his sight again, “thank you.”

“Sorry, Four.”

Four froze at the falsetto of Wild’s voice, he thought he was back to normal. Did his parts take turns controlling him like his did at one point?

Wild realized that he was staring, “oh, Time said I didn’t have to hide anymore. That I could come out whenever I was myself…was he wrong?”

Time stepped forward to clear up the situation, “no, welcome back as one, Vai.”

She beamed, “thanks! I’ll get started on breakfast now.”

“Finally!” Legend cheered and they went on with their day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To the person I told that Warriors would be next, whoops :P. He was supposed to but he was killing me writing his chapter.


	4. Eclipse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Twilight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written in the extreme LW for torture and injuries, read at your own risk.

“TWILIGHT!” Wild cried out as he was slammed into a tree with a thud. Twilight only froze slightly as his ward did not stir after. He was still breathing, he was alright. Twilight moved again. 

“What are you doing?” Four reached for his sword and was on the attack. Twilight had just attacked Wild out of nowhere with more strength than anyone had thought him capable of. 

Twilight’s eyes shot to him, glaring intensely. His right eye looked clouded and twitched uncontrollably. He opened his mouth, only to let out a low growl akin to a redead with how much it scared everyone around him. 

“Pup,” Time put away his weapon, “you’re safe. 

“You wanna die, Old Man?” Legend protected himself with his shield, “something happened to him, he must’ve been infected. 

Time shook his head, “it’s not that. Pup, you can control it.”

Without warning, Twilight launched again, this time aiming for Time. Having nothing to protect him and everyone else being too far away, Twilight easily picked up the man in a flash and lifted him to above his height, grip on his throat and tightening. Time didn’t fight back, he didn’t want to hurt his descendant. 

Sky was the first to move, bringing the Master Sword in an arc from above his head. He was nervous to hurt Twilight, but whatever was happening right now wasn’t him. 

Twilight looked over in time to see Sky attempting to slash at his arms. Fear filled his eyes and he dropped Time, moving away from the blade and hissing at it. 

“Are you okay?” Sky helped Time up. 

“That was reckless,” he nodded his thanks regardless. 

“Are you sure he’s not infected?” Warriors noted how Twilight’s eyes followed the Master Sword, moving away from it whenever it came closer. “He has an aversion to the Master Sword, that has never happened before.”

“Not just the Master Sword,” Four inched forward with his blade and the same reaction was gained, “the Four Sword, too. I think it’s light magic.”

Warriors tested it with his normal sword, Twilight completely ignored him. His eyes were frantically moving from Sky to Four to Hyrule to Legend to Wind. All of them had magic swords that use at least a little light magic. 

“Pup,” Time moved forward again, much to the complaints of the others, “this is not you.”

Twilight relaxed for a brief moment, then he snarled. He was acting like a wild animal, the pelt on his back didn’t help his case. The clouded look in his eye grew and darkened as his right eye became a pitch black void. The darkness was spreading, it seemed, as it started sprawling across his face. 

“He’s infected!” Legend repeated with certainty. 

“HE’S NOT!” Time barked back and returned to his calm voice, “just listen to my voice.”

“Is he going to be okay?” Wind asked, “what about Wild?”

“Keep your sword up, sailor,” Warriors ignored his questions. Wild was still lifeless behind Twilight, so they couldn’t even get to him.

Then, something directed everyone’s attention. The necklace that Twilight wore started to glow a deep red. He snarled and reach to grab it. 

“No,” Time said softly and he finally did something. He ran and forced Twi’s arms away from the necklace. 

“This is going too far?” Legend shouted, “he knocked out Wild and nearly kills you, but a necklace? That’s what you’re worried about?”

“Legend, shut up!” Four understood the danger. They could stop a human, they couldn’t stop a wolf. He moved forward as well, maybe his sword could remove whatever dark magic was harming Twilight. 

Twilight growled and shrieked as the blade was brought to his side. It was laying flat against his tunic, not even hurting him, but he acted as if he was being burned alive. It was working, though, the darkness in his eye was receding. 

Until he had one last surge of strength and broke out of Time’s grasp. He grabbed the sword with a howl and tried to chuck it away, before a flash of light blinded everyone.

When they could see again, it was just as chaotic, if not more. Time and Four were knocked back by the magic and currently weren’t moving just like Wild. That wasn’t what was chaotic, that was the four Twilight’s. 

The first one was dressed in what looked like Twilight’s original outfit from his quest. It was bright green compared to the forest green that he usually wore and he had his cap on. His face was clear of any markings and he carried the Hylian shield proudly. He was currently fighting another version of Twilight. 

The next Twilight was looking over Four and Time. He was dressed like a farmer and only had a single wooden sword on him. His hair was messy and his face also had no markings. 

The third Twilight was the first to sport the markings, though they looked feint and were hard to see. He was looking over Wild and was glancing up at his two counterparts fighting. He had chainmail on and a long dark blue cloak covering most of him. His eyes were milk white. 

The final Twilight was the one fighting the first Twilight, and he did not look friendly. His markings were there, but they were white instead of black. Maybe that was because the entirety of him was pitch black and it was the only way for the markings to stand out. He wore what Twilight normally wore, but burnt and ripped and ragged to no end. His eyes were a vicious red and his fangs looked wicked sharp. 

The Links didn’t know what to do as the two Twilights fought in a very violent wrestling match.

“Sky, give me the sword,” Day, the bright green tunic Twilight, gritted his teeth. 

“W-what?” Sky stuttered, did he want the Master Sword?

“Give me the Master Sword, right now!” He shouted. 

Night, the dark Twilight, laughed, “weak as always, can’t defeat me yourself, so you call on others.”

“I just want your death to be painful as possible!” Day punched at him, but missed. 

“What is going on?” Wind looked at Warriors, “Warriors? Are you okay?”

“T-that’s,” he recognized the glow in Night’s eyes, “that’s a Dark Link.”

“That is not it,” Legend shook his head, “he came from Twilight, that’s just weird part of him.”

“I know,” Warriors explained, shakily, “I didn’t say it was *the* Dark Link, just one of. There are many and they can be made in multiple ways. The Dark Link from my time, he…the darkness that made him up was pulled out of me.”

“You’re saying,” Wind frowned, “that that is the darkness that Twilight has inside of him.”

“He wasn’t infected,” Hyrule realized, “he was being corrupted.”

“SKY, THE SWORD!” Day screamed again.

“He isn’t going to give it to you,” Night smirked, “he thinks you’ll hurt me, which would be hurting the Hero of Twilight. We can’t have that, now can we?”

Sky was hesitant to listen to Day for that exact reason. Clearly any light magic was hurting Twilight, he didn’t want to imagine a sword in battle causing so much damage. 

“You are not me,” he pushed.

“But I am, little Hero,” Night snapped his fingers and vanished.

His cackles traveled across the area, but he didn’t reappear. There were times when Warriors swore he was right behind him, only to turn around and find nothing there. 

“Magic?” Hyrule spoke, “Twilight doesn’t like magic, I didn’t know he could use it.”

“Now you know the reason,” Day picked up the Four Sword that appeared with him and looked for Night, “show yourself!”

He didn’t, leaving an overly paranoid Day behind. He marched into the woods, away from the group, to hunt him down. 

“Wait!” Sky called out to him, “what’s going on?”

Four then woke up with a groan, maybe he could explain it better. He looked up to see a different Twilight than he knew and immediately figured out what was going on. 

“Welcome back,” Dawn, the farmer Twilight, smiled at him, “you should probably just fight with another sword for a while if you don’t want this to keep happening.”

“Next time don’t grab a sword with your bare hands,” Four noticed only two Twilights were there and Wild and Time were still passed out, “what did I miss?”

“Twilight went insane apparently,” Legend huffed, “you just missed two versions of him trying to kill each other, one of which looked like Dark Link!”

Four looked at Dawn and Dusk, the cloaked Twilight, trying to figure out how they were split. Knowing their secret, he realized the importance of the markings that were either missing or faded. Twilight was always cloaked in darkness, it seemed now that was shining through. 

“Day lost control,” Dusk sneered, “and Night started to take over.”

“If he didn’t grab the Four Sword accidentally,” Dawn was now looking over Time, “he would have been in full control.”

“You take turns?” Four asked. 

“No,” Dusk looked insulted, “Mr. Light has to always be in control. I have never been in control, but I am fine with that.”

He spat out his words, noting that he was indeed not fine with that. 

“Dusk,” Dawn glared, “no need to be so hostile.”

“No ne-NO NEED!” He stood up and flared his cloak behind him, “you’re not the one who’s life is on the line right now!”

“Life on the li-he’s not going to kill you!” Dawn also stood up and got in Dusk’s face. 

“He will once he’s done with Night, and you’re lucky you can hold the Master Sword or else you’d be dead to.”

Four interrupted the argument, “who’s killing who and why can’t you hold the Master Sword?”

He huffed, “pretty slow, aren’t you?”

Dawn stomped on his foot before looking at Four, “you know what we can do, and you also know where that comes from.”

Four nodded. Shapeshifting. Dark and Twili magic. 

“That source doesn’t just go away,” he continued, “it stays inside of us, building up until you get Night, and, well, you know our position on magic.”

“Night is nothing but dark magic,” Dusk bit, “and, we can’t have that, oh, no. The light must snuff out the dark before it retaliates!”

“Some of that darkness doesn’t stay in Night,” Dawn gripped his wooden sword, “it can overflow into us. We’re like safeguards, making sure that the darkness can’t spread faster than it can be contained. I have a little darkness in me, not too much that it matters, and Dusk has more dark than he does light. Day is pure light, so he’s usually the one leading the way.”

“That’s why I can’t touch this goddess forsaken blade,” for affect he walked over to Sky and touched the hilt of the Master Sword before he could be stopped, “it senses the darkness in me.”

He held onto the blade way longer than necessary. It burned through his gloves and left a mark on his hand in the shape of the ribbons that lined the hilt. He showed them all. 

“See,” he ignored the pain, “that means I’m more ‘evil’ in Day’s eyes. He’ll be coming to kill me as soon as Night is dead.”

“H-how can Twilight hold her at all?” Sky backed away from them, “if there’s this much darkness inside of him?”

“It ends up being a 50/50 split of light and dark,” Dawn shrugged, “guess that’s enough for the Master Sword.”

“It’s wonderful,” Dusk drawled and took one last look at Wild. He still wasn’t awake, he might have broken a rib when he was slammed into the tree, but there wasn’t much he could do. He started to walk the opposite direction of where his other two parts went. 

“Where are you going?” Warriors blocked his path. 

He glared, “hiding.”

“Day, if that was his name, won’t kill you,” Warriors assured him, “he would need light magic or the Master Sword to do that, and we won’t let that happen. You are apart of Twilight and he needs to face that.”

“Really now,” he gave a fake smile, “then what if I told you that you could all go rot in the afterlife? That I could care less if any of you end up dead?”

“I’d say you’re bluffing.”

Dusk laughed, “I’m not an idiot, I have self preservation and I’m sticking to it. Hyrule could burn and I wouldn’t bat an eye if it meant me surviving.”

“What about Wild?” Legend pointed out, “you seemed pretty concerned about him.”

He faltered, “he’s the exception, but he can take care of himself. He’s no longer my issue.”

There was a standoff between Warriors and Dusk before Dawn interrupted. 

“Let him go,” he said in a calm voice, “no use in having him stay.”

“But-“

Dusk pushed the knight aside, “you heard the man, good riddance to all of you.”

They all watched as another part of Twilight disappeared into the trees. Warriors looked to Dawn, confused as to why he allowed him to leave. 

“He’ll be back,” he said, “he doesn’t know how to survive without us and he cares too much about Wild to not see him recover. He just needs to blow off steam.”

“What about you, then?” Four crossed his arms, “do you not care about us?”

Dawn shook his head, “on the contrary, I care immensely for all of you. It’s Hyrule, the country, that I don’t have any feelings on. If it was my decision, I would’ve stayed a farmer in Ordon and never left, but it was my friends who needed saving and I couldn’t just leave them alone. I only wanted to save Hyrule because of them, though the others have their own reasons, or lack of them in Night’s case.”

“Where are they?” Wind couldn’t spot Night or Day or even hear them, “should we look for them before something happens?”

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Dawn sat back down to care for Time, who was slowly coming back, “this is just cleansing Twilight, but done more open. We’ve done this before, usually while holding the Master Sword.”

How many times? Four thought, did Twilight regularly kill a part of himself often? Sure it was a dark part of him, but wouldn’t it be better to stop using dark magic at all to avoid this situation? To stop corrupting him from the inside out. 

Then a wolf howled.

Day broke through the the trees and looked around crazily for his enemy. The Four Sword was unnaturally glowing and was being waved around defensively. 

“Where are you,” Day growled, blind to anything other than his goal. 

Another howl rang and a wolf slowly protruded from the darkness. It looked as if Wolfie had been infected by some disease with its fur tangled and falling off. Their was blood stained forever all over it and it’s teeth were sharper than a sword. 

“There you are,” Day grinned victoriously. 

The wolf, Wolfie, was Night? The Links who didn’t know widened their eyes. Only Dawn looked concerned as their secret was outed. 

The wolf lunged at Day and he sliced into his mouth, but, before the blade landed, the wolf disappeared into mist. He swiveled around, finding Night back in human form and kicking Dawn away violently from their passed out friends. 

“Night,” Dawn said slowly, “don’t.”

“Don’t worry,” Night bared his teeth, “I won’t hurt them.”

He placed a foot on Wild’s chest and pushed down on the broken rib. Wild wheezed in his sleep and fidgeted. 

“Much.”

Dawn raised his wooden sword, ready to charge, and Day raised a hand to stop him. 

“If you move closer, he will hurt them,” he explained.

“Ah,” Night nodded, “so you understand. Let’s play a game, then, for every step you move forward, I break one of Cub’s bones.”

Day stood still, “how can you compare yourself to me and yet still do this? No part of me would want to hurt others for no reason.”

Night wagged his finger, “this isn’t for no reason, don’t you remember all the times he has made you angry? When he hurt himself selflessly or refused to let something go, you got mad. You wanted to show that anger.”

“No,” he hissed, “I was angry, yes, because I was concerned.”

“Angry nonetheless,” Night tilted head, “and I did warn you.”

In a flash, Night slammed his heel onto Wild’s foot, hard. They all heard a crunch and saw how mangled the boot now looked. Every Link jumped and raised their swords or bows. 

“We didn’t move!” Dawn yelled. 

“You didn’t, but I suggest the Captain move back.”

Warriors face showed horror when he realized that his one, singular step to the side was enough to set Night off. He quickly moved away, too scared to say anything.

“Wild,” Wind tried to push back tears and failed. There was really nothing any of them could do. 

“What do you want?” Day said calmly. In negotiations it was critical not to anger the opposing side. He just hoped he didn’t also turn his aggressiveness to Time. 

Night raised an eyebrow, “you know what I want, I want to be in control. All the darkness we use to transform comes from me, so I think I have a right to be the one calling the shots.”

“You come from the magic, not the other way around.”

“So cute,” he rolled his eyes, “you still think we’re a perfect example of the Hero of Hyrule, we have no faults, only the magic we use is to blame. Keep living in a fantasy world and you might actually see Midna again.”

Day, without thinking, started walking forward in anger. 

“DAY, NO!”

“Looks like you really did want to hurt Cub.”

Night pressed on Wild’s right arm and broke two more bones. Day was fuming, but he stopped.

“I hope you know that she wouldn’t like what you’ve done,” Night closed his eyes, “ironically she would be more inline with Dusk, or even me in the right circumstances.”

“Midna’s a good person,” Dawn argued, “even she wouldn’t think this is good.”

“I guess we’ll never know.”

Meanwhile, Legend glanced to Warriors. 

“I have a shot,” he whispered, “light arrows, do I fire?”

Warriors didn’t know what to say, “will that kill him? Won’t that hurt Twilight?”

“At this point I’m agreeing with Day,” he admitted, “if that’s a part of Twilight, he’s too dangerous to be kept alive.”

Their conversation was derailed when Time’s body started to move. His vision was hazy and he could barely make out a dark figure standing over him. 

“Time!” A couple of the Links called out at once as Night placed his foot on his chest, finally leaving Wild alone.

“Hey, Old Man,” Night smiled down at him, leaning on his knee, “so glad you could join us.”

“Pup…?” Time winced in pain and his eyes closed, but he was still awake. 

“Leave him alone,” Day demanded, “he has done nothing, ever to anger us, we have nothing against him.”

He chuckled, “are you sure about that? What about when we found out he was the Hero’s Shade? Weren’t you angry that he lied to us, kept it a secret that he knew us?”

He was annoyed, he would’ve spent more time with him if he knew. He didn’t want to hurt him, though. All of his feelings were being blown out of proportion. 

“How about we return the favor,” out of mist, he summoned his Four Sword, but it was made out of darkness, “after all, he has to be dead to become the Hero’s Shade.”

He raised his sword high and was ready to swing. Warriors quickly issued to Legend to be ready to fire, but he kept fumbling with the arrows for the first time in his life 

“Night,” Dawn pleaded, “even you can see how this is a bad idea. Time doesn’t have any children yet, we won’t exist if you do this.”

What? They were related? Any other time that would have been mind blowing, but now it was terrifying. 

“I’ll take the odds that Malon didn’t tell him,” he shrugged, “besides, not existing wouldn’t be so bad. I’ve always wanted to cause a paradox.”

He looked back at Time, who could faintly tell what was going on, but couldn’t do anything to stop it. He had no weapons and was too weak to move. It was over. 

“I want the last thing for him to see be his Pup’s face,” he poked at the old man to open his eyes and swung downward.

Ignoring the consequences, Day charged forward with a war cry. He needed to go faster, he needed to save Time, he needed to-he needed to outsmart Night…

He was prepared for that, Night never intended to kill Time. Instead, his sword vanished into dust and he snapped his fingers, Day, along with Legend about to fire, froze in place. Night’s attention turned to Wild. 

No, no, no, no, no, no. 

“I’m not stupid,” he smiled cheerfully, “thanks, Dawn. I think you might be, though, Day. You ran what? 20 steps?”

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. 

“Cub has broken more before, so he should be fine. Still, there’s always the chance…”

No. No. No. No. No. No. NO. NO. NO NO. NO!

Day could only watch on in horror as Night grabbed Wild’s other arm and twisted. The cracking noise went for minutes and no one could do anything to stop it. A few Links closed their eyes and covered their ears. 

Crack! He broke Wild’s right hand. It started bleeding and hung limp. More scars would be added to his collection. 

CRACK! He stood on both of Wild’s legs and they feel apart quicker than Hyrule Castle when the Calamity rose. 

There was nothing they could do, it wasn’t even worth paying attention, but Day had to. He had caused this and Night wanted him to know that.

“13, 14, 15,” he counted playfully, “these really are brittle. He should drink more milk like Time, I bet his bones are harder to break.”

“Don’t you dare,” Dawn cried. It as an empty threat, so it did nothing to stop Night. 

“16, 17, 18. Oh, wait, Cub only survived breaking so many bones because he had Mipha. I wonder what will happen after this. Anyway, 19-“

“Stop!” As promised, Dusk had come back and he was livid. He stormed ahead, much to the fear of everyone and to the glee of Night, and grabbed Night by the collar, “you bastard!”

“The coward come to say something?” Night laughed, “about how I shouldn’t be hurting our ancestor and best friend.”

Dusk glared, “you could have hurt anyone, anyone, else, but you hurt him. He has done nothing wrong ever, he just wants to help everyone. You hurt him!”

“What are you going to do about it?” He asked, “you’ve said it yourself, if you kill me, then you’re up next. You would gladly hurt Time if it meant living, and them knowing that would make them want to get rid of you.”

“I’m, I’m,” Dusk looked for an answer, “I don’t care what I do. Stop. Hurting. Him.”

“Then you might’ve wanted to stay hidden,” Night whispered, “you stepped forward.”

“Huh?”

Dusk was blown back by a burst of magic and fell to the ground about twenty yards away. Night sarcastically brushed himself off as he stood and looked to Wild, ready for more torture. 

“Now I’ve lost count,” he pouted, “how far away were you? Bet you made it a mile before running back. How many bones would that be?”

“Dusk, you idiot,” Dawn covered his mouth to not scream. 

Night shrugged, “starting over would take too long, how about we just put him out of his misery! He can finally see his family again, so think of this has ‘heroic kindness’ if you want to make yourselves feel better.”

He summoned his sword again and this time he was serious. He pointed the tip at Wild’s throat, taking in the situation like it was the best thing to ever happen to him. At least he was in control for a while. 

“Goodbye, Cub.”

“NO!” 

It all happened in a flash. Time swung his legs and knocked Night over. His magic broke, releasing Day and Legend from his grip, and they fell to the ground. Legend scrambled up and fired finally at Night. 

He hissed as the arrow embedded itself in his stomach. The light magic spread through him, dissolving his body as he screamed. 

Day wasted no time to run forward and wasn’t overly dramatic about it. One slice down and Night’s head was separated from his body. It rolled away and the red eyes creepily followed Day as he collapsed into tears. Finally, the body and the head vanished into dust. 

“W-wild, Cub,” he reached forward, but refused to actually touch the mangled body, “I’m s-so sorry.”

The Links were silent until Warriors called them to action. 

“We have two injured,” he cleared his throat, “Hyrule, Wind, Legend, take care of Wild, check his slate. Four, get Twilight back together, if you can. Me and Sky get Time.”

They did as commanded, too emotionally drained to do anything else.

“Dusk,” Dawn shook the cloaked Twilight, who was staring at Wild, “we have to fuse.”

“I almost, I almost killed him,” he mumbled, “I couldn’t save him, I couldn’t-“

“He’s going to be fine,” Dawn forced him to stand up, “Four needs us, before Day…”

“He’d be right to kill me,” Dusk said plainly, “Night, he was a monster. Anymore darkness and I’d turn into him. I can’t even feel that much anymore. I hurt him.”

He fell down again refusing to move. Four walked over with an equally distraught Day. 

“I don’t think you guys are ready,” he looked them over, “the Four Sword needs you to be perfectly in sync with each other to-“

“Four,” Day interrupted, “we are all ready to collapse and never move again, there will never be another moment when we are in sync as this.”

“…okay, I just don’t know if this would work with only three. In my experience you need everyone to fuse.”

“Night isn’t gone,” Dawn explained, “he’ll be back as the darkness grows more, so he’s already back inside of Twilight. This time, this time we’ll make sure he is properly dealt with, so that this never happens again.”

“We are never using our powers again unless it is an emergency,” Dusk growled weakly.

The other two agreed and sat down next to each other. They all laid out their Four Sword and, without any flare or pomp, we’re back as one sobbing Twilight. 

He stood up and handed Four his sword, “this would have been worse if I didn’t split, thank you.”

“Twilight, do you need to talk?” Four offered as he walked to where Hyrule was performing magic on Wild. He shook his head, he needed to see Wild up close, with all of his eyes as one. 

Goddesses, he looked so pale. There was blood trickling all over him and his insides must’ve been mush. Even with the healing magic, there would be scars that would constantly remind them of this day. He would hate him when he woke up. 

Twilight whispered softly, “Cub? Can you hear me?”

No response, but he didn’t expect there to be. He leaned on a tree for support, this all really happened. Night, he…

Twilight felt a weight on back and turned his head to see Time hugging him. 

“What are you doing?” He asked, “you should hate me right now.”

“You need it, Pup,” don’t call him that, “and why should I hate you?”

“I nearly killed you, nearly killed Wild!” He shouted and tried to leave Time’s arms, but he held firm, “I couldn’t control the darkness inside of me. I failed as a Hero and hurt the people I cared about and-“

“That wasn’t you,” Time shook his head, “and you did everything you could to protect us. I am sorry this happened to you, Pup.”

Why was he apologizing? Why was he being nice to him? Why was he crying so hard? 

Twilight melted into Time’s hug and prayed that everything would be okay. After a couple of minutes, he heard a weak voice.

“Twilight?”

Everything would be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t think any of my other chapters on this will be extreme, so you don’t have to worry about that.


	5. Cardinal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a little shorter than the others, but, then again, so is Wind. Y’all and me need a break after the last chapter. This was only half edited, so sorry for any typos.

Wind stared, almost hungrily, at the Four Sword, laying next to the sleeping body of Four. He wanted, needed, to wield that blade. 

As someone who had wielded three magical swords and many more non-magical swords, Wind considered himself a connoisseur of weaponry, so he felt a longing whenever he saw a new shiny one. Sure, he didn’t hoard like Wild or Legend, but he at least wanted to try to hold it. 

He was giving himself too much credit. He liked shiny things. He liked magical things. He liked what could potentially cause an explosion. So, he was what Warriors called a gremlin. 

He had stolen Time’s sword a while ago, nearly falling over the weight. He almost sliced his head open when he took Wild’s ancient blade. Hyrule was nice enough to let him hold his sword and nothing much happened with that, so it was boring. He could also hold the Master Sword anytime he wanted, he had to ask Sky for permission, though, he just hadn’t yet. His eyes were now set on the Four Sword. 

He reached forward, careful not to alert to the sleeping moblins that were his friends, and laid his hand on the hilt. 

Someone stirred, it was Warriors!

“Wind? Whatya doing?” He slurred, bolting awake at the sight of him, “WIND!”

A flash of light, a burst of wind. The camp blew away, the fire sputtered out into nothingness. The trees shook and sway, a few branches teetering on the edge of snapping, and everyone was awake.

Four took one look at the four Winds and immediately went back to sleep. He was taking no more bull with his sword anymore and if they had a problem with it they would stop stealing the Four Sword. 

“Worth it!” One of the Winds said with a smile. He wore a reverse version of his normal blue tunic, with the sleeves being long and in flaps and not the bottom. His hair was messy, moving at the slightest motion, and he seemed more youthful, if that was possible. 

“Wind!” Warriors scowled, he kept having to move his scarf out of his face as the winds were stronger than ever for some reason at the moment. “Er, Winds? Why did you do that?”

“Worth it!” The same Wind repeated, “this is awesome, as I thought it would be.”

“That is no excuse to steal the Four Sword while we are asleep! Now, fuse back together.”

“Aww, c’mon, Wars,” he pouted, “look what I can do now!”

The Wind waved his hands and a gush of air rushed out from nowhere. It was stronger than anything the Wind Waker could do and definitely beat the deku leaf. Splitting made his affinity with wind magic stronger apparently.

“Can we not!” The second Wind shrieked as he was flung away by the air. He was floating in midair, only half of his body even being visible, making it possible he was a spirit that they could see for whatever reason. The part of him they could see had dark blue overalls and his hair was pushed back by a royal blue bandana. He too had a connection to the air, as, whenever he came near, the others could feel a warn breeze pass by them. 

“Sorry,” the first Wind giggled. 

Warriors groaned, it seemed they had a problem on their hands. At the very least they could see the dead person now, though he wasn’t 100% sure that the second Wind was dead. He looked at the four and was reminded of those fairy tales he heard as a child, stories of wind sprites and fairies. They reminded him of those stories. 

“Alright, Anemoi,” Warriors held the first one firm, making sure he would blow them all away, “Four will probably not appreciate this-“

“He’s asleep,” the second one pointed out, “and was awake-“

“So he made the conscious decision to allow us to do this!” The first beamed, “or he didn’t stop us. Now, names! You called me Anemone?”

Warriors rubbed his nose, “Anemoi, plural for wind spirits. If you want to be named after them then you’re Zephyr, which sounds pretentious, so it’s perfect for you.”

“Thanks, *Warriors*,” Zephyr, the first Wind smiled, “and, now that you named me, you have to keep me! It’s the rules!”

“What rules?”

Zephyr shrugged and started to jump up and down, causing tiny gusts to sweep up the dirt at his feet. 

“Let’s go! I want to play!”

“Calm down,” Warriors glared at all the other Links who went on with their morning routine instead of helping him. They were used to this by now. He pointed to the ghost Wind, “Eurus.”

“Sounds cool,” Eurus accepted the name gladly. 

“C’mon!” Zephyr pulled Eurus away to go reek havoc somewhere else, “I want to see if I can fly, too!”

“Wi-Zephyr, no!” Warriors called after him, not being able to run in case the other two Winds did something. He didn’t know how Time handled being the dad in the group, it was a nightmare taking care of one 14-year-old. 

He turned to the final two Winds. The first one that caught his eye was shivering. His blond hair had blue tips at the end and he looked beyond pale. He could see his breath in 70 degree weather, though that was probably due to the cold blasts of air that surrounded him. He wore a puffy jacket that made him look like an egg. It reminded him of photos of the Anouki race that Wind had shown him from New Hyrule. 

“Are you okay?” Warriors touched his shoulder, it was freezing cold.

“Y-yeah,” he stuttered, “it’s c-c-cold.”

“Go rest, Boreas,” he didn’t voice ‘away from the others’ because it went without saying, “try to warm up.”

“T-thank, W-w,” Boreas’ lips quivered and his sentenced trailed off. To him, it felt 20 below freezing and he could feel is heart slowing, but he was still alive somehow. He pulled his hood closer over his head, hoping to warm up even a little bit. 

The last Wind, Warriors cheered happily in his head when looking at the final one. He hadn’t said anything since his creation, but that didn’t mean anything since neither did Boreas. His hair was eerily motionless, whereas all the other Winds flew everywhere. He had a dark cloak on, which also stayed still in the humid air that surrounded him, and was tied together with a green sash. There was a glassy look in his eye as he stared into the distance, a little like Wild when he remembered.

“Wind?” Warriors waved his hand in front of his face. No reaction. “Notus?”

Notus continued to do nothing, no matter what Warriors did. Waving around his hands, speaking to him, and even taking the Four Sword that was at his feet did nothing. Warriors did take note of how much stronger the wind got as he moved closer to Notus, to the point that he couldn’t even touch him. 

“Notus,” he pushed forward, the humidity made his hand feel sticky as he managed to finally place a hand on him, “are you there?”

Something changed. Notus’ eyes flashes and his cloak started to whip around wildly. A burst of air as he lifted his head up slightly knocked Warriors off his feet and dragged him away. Once he was nowhere near him, Notus returned to the blank and motionless stare he had.

“Took a dive, Captain?” Legend snarked as he walked passed, “I thought you swept women off your feet, not children sweeping you.”

“Shut up, rat!” Warriors growled at the laughing Hero, “something’s wrong with him, with Notus.”

“So what?” Legend reluctantly helped the captain up, “there’s always the odd man out in this it seems. At least he isn’t trying to kill anyone.”

“That is a low bar,” he ignored Legend rolling his eyes and went back to Notus. He stopped about five feet away when the cloak started to move again, that seemed to be his warning bells. 

“I w-wouldn’t,” Boreas called over from his place under a tree, “the w-wind.”

“You all control the wind, if you hadn’t noticed,” Warriors smiled, “what’s a little humidity?”

“No,” Boreas coughed into his gloved hand, “G-ganon’s W-wind.”

“Ganon?”

He had no idea what this had to do with Ganon, or Ganondorf since that was only form Wind ever encountered. What was this part of Wind?

“Notus,” Warriors said calmly, ignoring Boreas’ warning cries, “can you just look at me?”

The humidity grew, the moisture in the air feeling heavier. Clouds started to form above the area, dark storm clouds that swirled and were too big for his liking. 

“Oh, no,” Boreas whispered, looking in fear at the looming storm. 

“What’s going on?” Warriors clung to his scarf, keeping it from flying away. 

“G-ganon’s Wind!” He shouted again, “it’s the-the-it’s hard to explain!”

Ganon’s Wind was the term that was gifted to the essence that flowed over the country side. The wind that Ganondorf coveted, the wind he killed for, was named after him to oppose him. Whereas he embodied the desert wind, harsh, bipolar, and dry, Link, the Hero of Winds, embodied Hyrule’s wind, lush, strong, and fierce. 

Ganondorf considered his winds to be a death sentence. 

They weren’t. 

The winds that lead Hyrule to success also lead them to destruction. The calm breeze turned into a harbinger of the storms that would flood the country. When ships tried to sail, the gusts would destroy them before they had a chance. The flags were torn away from their mast in an instant. 

Lush, the fields that were now gone. Strong, unrelenting and unmovable. Fierce, deadly. 

Ganon’s Winds.

Through Notus’ eyes, he saw nothing but an imaginary goal. To him, he was in the middle of those fields, atop a crumbling castle and fighting an age-old demon. Dry air against humid rain. 

The King was dead, the Princess behind him. He waited for the moment to strike, for the battle to begin. 

Notus never stopped looking south. 

“You need to fuse back,” Warriors called, “go find Eurus and Zephyr! I’ll calm Notus down.”

“You n-need to w-walk away!” 

He refused to listen, choosing to not be fearful of the rain that started to pour down heavily. He managed to grip the sleeve of his shirt, holding strong even when Notus started to move. 

He turned his head sharply, eyes glaring something fierce and un-Wind like, as the winds from the south plowed into Warriors. The rain pelted at him like daggers and hot wind came out of nowhere to burn his skin. 

He heard a cackling. He looked up to see the storm clouds start to glow and Notus carry a sneer.

“GET OUT OF THE WAY!” Boreas shoved him aside suddenly and Warriors felt hot and cold all at once. A lightning bolt narrowly missed the both of them. 

Warriors fell to the ground and looked in time to see Boreas slicing at Notus with his sword. He didn’t hit him by any means, but it seemed the blade was used to direct his powers. Freezing winds smacked into the rain and froze them solid. Notus actually struggled, Boreas’ force being stronger than his, and he slide backwards. 

“What?” Warriors was confused to see the stoic Wind’s teeth shake in the cold. 

“I c-came from an island that only has 80 degrees at min-minimum all year,” Boreas snapped, “d-did you th-think we could handle the cold? Why do you th-think I’m f-f*cking f-freezing!”

Ah, there were the swears. He was wondering who those came from. 

Boreas continued to push and slice Notus backwards, stopping any water from coming within a yard of him. Warriors struggled to pick himself up, but he didn’t need to.

“We leave you alone for five minutes,” Zephyr joked. He ran in, holding Eurus’ hand so that he didn’t fly away. “You guys are no fun. We were hanging out with everyone else.”

Everyone else was enjoying their sweet time of ignoring a cyclone appearing a couple yards away from them, Warriors wanted to scream. 

“Oh, Ganon’s Wind,” Eurus remarked, “I didn’t know we could still control that much wind without the baton.”

“Just fuse!” Warriors cried, “for the love of Hylia!”

“Boring, but alright?” Zephyr pushed forward and made it to Boreas, “how you doing?”

“G-great,” he laughed weakly, “got anything to stop us?”

“Yeah,” he nodded and raised the Master Sword that was in his other hand. What could he say? He liked magical swords. “Hey, us! Look at this cool sword!”

The wind immediately died down as Notus laid eyes on the sacred blade. Only Heroes could wield that, so they couldn’t be Ganon. He couldn’t be back in the ruins of the castle, he was...he was...

Notus stopped moving completely again, somehow even more lifeless than before. His cloak froze and the rain vanished completely, not even the wind that surrounded him remain.

“Works like a charm,” Zephyr let go of Eurus and swapped the Master Sword for the Four Sword, “I wonder if we can do that as on-“

“No!” Warriors snapped, “no, no, no, and no!”

“Coward,” he grumbled, “Wild would let me try.”

“Wild has his dead girlfriend to make sure he doesn’t die,” Warriors pointed out, “do you have a dead magical girlfriend? No, now fuse.”

“P-please,” Boreas begged, he couldn’t take much more of the cold. 

The three conscious Winds grabbed their swords and stood still. Eurus grabbed the fourth Four Sword and held it for Notus. Is a burst of light and wind, Wind was back as one, hair messier than it had ever been in his life. 

“I repeat Zephyr’s statement,” he beamed, “worth it. Can I please try to-“

“No. This was dangerous.”

“Aw...”

Four, who had been sleeping nearby the whole time, woke up with a yawn. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes and saw the war zone left behind. 

“What did I miss?” He asked. 

“How did you not wake up with all that wind?” Warriors complained. He was right there!

“Wind?” Four raised an eyebrow, “can’t have been worse than the Tower of Winds, so that’s why I wouldn’t have woken up.”

“How-“

“Challenge accepted!”

“WIND, NO!”

Warriors removed the Four Sword from his gripped and returned it to its rightful owner. It was then that Wind sneezed, and kept sneezing. 

“What-achoo-why am I-achoo-sneezing?” He asked, perplexed, “why am I-achoo-so cold?”

Warriors ruffled his hair, “you’re sick from being completely freezing and in the rain. Take this as a lesson to not steal a sword again.”

Yeah...he would steal more swords in the future. A little cold wouldn’t stop him.


	6. Weapons

“Alright,” Warriors marched, looking at all the Links, who were all in various stages of annoyance, “why are we here today?”

Legend raised his hand, “because you want to torture us?”

“We’re here, because somebody,” he glared at an injured Wild on the sidelines, the only Link not participating in the day’s events, “hurt himself while using someone else’s weapon.”

Wild rolled his eyes, “how was I supposed to know that my sword would break and the nearest thing was a magical staff that flipped me upside down?”

“How did you even find that?” Four asked, “that was in my bag!”

“Regardless,” Warriors interrupted, “we can’t have this happen again. What if any one of us loses his weapon and has to borrow one? We can’t injure ourselves for not being prepared. So, today, we are trying out everyone else’s arms.”

“YES!” Wind pumped his fist, “dibs on Time’s sword!”

A few of them seemed wary, they were all protective of their gear, especially their swords. Swords wouldn’t be the only thing swapped, though, as would spears, rods, and any magic item that could be used as a weapon. 

“You do this and don’t let me participate?” Wild grimaced, “I have been asking to do this for months.”

Warriors nodded, “this is punishment. You’re already a master at any weapon, you just need to know what the magical items do. You can do that by watching.”

Wild pouted as Warriors conducted an item swap. Wind did not get the Biggoron Sword, but he was equally happy with receiving the Master Sword once again. Sky got Legend’s Harp of Ages and Legend gained Hyrule’s Magical Sword. Hyrule claimed Wind’s Wind Waker and Twilight hesitantly touched Wild’s Sheikah Slate. Time sat down his weapon and replaced it with Twilight’s sling shot. 

Some of them were used to what they got, others nervous, and some were in between. That still left Warriors and Four for a different weapon. 

“Wild broke my cane,” Four looked through his things, “but I have a hammer, a boomerang, a-“

“Your sword?” Warriors grinned. 

“What?” Four’s eyes widened, “is this what this is about? You want to split?”

“It’s nothing like that,” he lied, “simply everyone else is switching weapons, and you need to learn not to rely on the Four Sword.”

He outstretched his hand.

“Half of you have already stolen this and the outcomes weren’t pleasant!” 

“But,” he shrugged, “four of me means less likely there will be an injury, I can watch over everyone more easily.”

There were already grunts coming from the others. Wind was struggling to pick up the Master Sword when it was at its prime and Twilight looked like he wanted nothing to do with the slate. Wild was getting anxious and was about to jump up and join, injury or no. 

Four reluctantly handed his blade over, “fine, but I am knocking you upside the head if you refuse to give it back by the end of this.”

He immediately regretted his decision as soon as Warriors swiped the Four Sword. The moment he touched the blade, the usual light and magic washed over him and four Warriors stood in front of Four. 

“Thank goodness!” Four cheered at the sight of them. They all looked like Warriors, with the exception that they were in different tunics of green, blue, red, and purple. Maybe this would be like him and his brothers, split between personality traits and not some emotional baggage. 

Everyone stopped to stare at the four Warriors, even the Warriors themselves. The green one’s eyes sparked with excitement. 

“This is amazing,” he declared, “imagine how much this would have helped in the war.”

“Exactly!” The red one agreed, “Ganon’s army would’ve been gone in the first battle.”

“Four,” the blue one looked at him, “why don’t you fight like this all the time. The advantage you would have over others-“

“You would be unstoppable,” the purple one finished. 

Or not normal, they all acted the same. They had the same movements, voices, and pretty much looks. Was Warriors just multiplied to four bodies?

“Do we need nicknames now,” Four crossed his arms, “to avoid confusion?”

The green nodded and looked to the red one, “that’s what we wore in Eldin, wasn’t it?” 

“Yes,” red pointed to blue, “and that’s Lanayru.”

“Then,” Four decided to be lazy, “you’re Faron, you’re Eldin, and you’re Lanayru. As for you...”

The purple one looked at his tunic, “we wore this in Lorule and in places of darkness.”

“Lorule, then.”

“Wait,” Sky pointed out, “those are names of sacred dragons in my time.”

“Well,” Four snapped, “and in most of ours they are different regions. They’ll only be here for five minutes and I am not ready to have another headache!”

He would apologize for yelling later.

“Well,” Faron clapped his hands and addressed the others, “back to work! We’ll be watching you and working on coordinating between four of us.”

The Links slowly went back to practicing. Four decided it was better of his time to go to Twilight and ask to study one of Wild’s numerous breakable weapons. 

“Uh,” Lanayru looked through his inventory, “I am missing a few things. What about you guys?”

A murmur of agreement rose up and they all pulled out their weapons. Faron was left with only his knight’s sword, Eldin had the fire rod, Lanayru had the gauntlets, and Lorule had the spinner. 

“Oh, I get it,” Legend watched them as their differences were finally revealed, “Four splits by his emotions, I split because my brain is whack, and you split based off your weapons. Because you’re a giant tool.”

“Four of us means we can kill you four times faster, Rat!” Lorule glared. 

“Bring it on!” 

“I thought four of you being here was supposed to prevent injuries,” Time spoke up in a tone that implied that he would be the one to cause the injuries if they fought. 

“Sorry, Old Man,” Faron smiled, “we’ll get to work now.”

The four branched away from each other and watched over everyone. Eldin watched Legend and Hyrule. Lanayru watched Sky and Wind. Lorule watched Twilight and Four. Faron’s whole job was to make sure Wild wouldn’t move and Time didn’t need supervision. 

“Twilight, it’s just the slate,” Lorule gestured for him to use the device. 

“Magic,” he sneered. 

“SCIENCE!” Wild screamed from his resting place. 

“Fine, ‘science’,” never the less, Twilight still kept the slate at an arm’s length away from him, “I’ll take his lynel shield, but not this. I’m done with magic!”

Lorule rolled his eyes as Twilight would only use the slate to summon something, this time being a rusty halberd and lynel shield. An odd combination, but maybe that was what he was going for. Twilight and Four went into a spar, using Wild’s weapons and hoping that none of them would shatter in their hands. 

Turning to Eldin, Hyrule and Legend were more or less working okay. Wind gave Hyrule the basic instructions on how to conduct the wind and he was getting pretty good at it. Legend was inspecting the Magical Sword, weighing it in his hands to make sure he could wield it properly, it being so different from the one he was used to. 

“Ey, smithy number two!” Eldin commented, “you going to use that thing or just stare at it.”

“If I kill one of you, you can’t merge,” Legend didn’t even glance in his direction, “so let me study this. Hyrule, what exactly is magical about this?”

Hyrule pushed some of his hair out of his face, “uh, I don’t actually know. I found it in a cave.”

“As you do everything,” he chuckled, “alright, red, let’s fight.”

“Wouldn’t it be unfair,” Eldin pointed to his fire rod, “I have a ranged device, while you have only a sword.”

“Winner gets 100 rupees.”

“Oh, you’re on!”

Lanayru was honestly impressed by how well Wind could wield the Master Sword. By all accounts, he shouldn’t be able too. Wind was barely taller than Four, yet he was able to hold the sword long enough to get a couple swings in. Sky was perplexed, but not confused somehow. 

“She must really like you,” he smiled, “letting you hold her even when you’re too small.”

“Because I am the best!” Wind proclaimed, comedically dropping the sword at that moment, “oops.”

Lanayru smirked, “don’t get an ego now.”

He turned to Sky, making sure he didn’t accidentally teleport himself into a different decade. 

“I don’t know how this works,” Sky plucked a few strings on the Harp of Ages, “it seems like a normal harp. How is this a weapon?”

“Legend mentioned time traveling,” Lanayru shrugged, “that seems to be Dark Link’s biggest weapon against us.”

“If you play bad enough, any instrument is a weapon,” Wind thought aloud, “that’s why I think Time has an ocarina.”

“You think he’s so bad he can kill with it?” Lanayru wanted to laugh. 

“Prove me wrong, you have no proof!”

Cutting to Faron, he was having a very boring conversation with Wild. 

“So if you have a knight’s sword,” Wild was thinking aimlessly, “is it the same durability as my time’s knight swords.”

“You are not breaking my weapon,” Faron stopped his question before he asked it, “goddesses, I’d hate to see you on the battlefield using my Epona.”

Wild’s eyes went wide, “you can use horses as weapons?”

Faron’s eyes went wide for a very different reason, “no, NO! You can’t!”

“Don’t worry…” there was a pause, why was there a pause? Stop pausing! “…I already knew that.”

He rubbed his head, “the more I learn about you, the less I want to know you as a person.”

Wild chuckled before frowning, “I get that a lot.”

Whether he meant that many people had said that to him or that he got it when Faron said it, Faron did not know. Both options were terrible and he immediately regretted saying it. 

“Sorry, Wild,” he apologized. 

“It’s good, I know I’m a handful,” he grinned again, “but I have an excuse.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“You know how I’m technically 117?”

“Yeah.”

“I woke up only a couple months ago with no memories; therefore, I should only be a year old, tops. You can’t blame a baby for acting up!”

Faron burst out laughing, he did not expect that one. Come to think of it, from Wild’s perspective he’s only known the world for a short time. That was weird. 

“So you finally admit it,” he wiped away tears, “wait until I tell Twilight about this.”

Wild shook his head, “I have used this joke so many times he is sick of it. This is how I got out of trouble in my Hyrule.”

The training exercised went on a couple more hours. Here or there they swapped more weapons and items, letting them try out the widest ranges of weird that they all owned. Faron was graced with freedom from babysitting duty and switched places with Lorule halfway through the day. There were no injuries except for a few minor burns and cuts, curtsy of Eldin and Legend. 

Legend got the 100 rupees, and he would be glad to share about how he did it. 

“I could take on all four of you,” he proudly stated, “just as weak as ever.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Eldin sourly handed over the money he owed, “using magic is a cheap trick, still.”

“It’s called the Magical Sword,” he pointed out, “it isn’t my fault.”

“I mean your rings!”

It was getting late then, so the four Warriors called everyone together, asking them all to give back their weapons. 

“Can we do this again?” Wind bounced, “please, please!“

“Maybe,” Lanayru told him. 

“Can I join in next time?”

“No, Wild.”

The man grumbled, “you break one magical staff and everyone thinks you have a problem.”

Four leered at Wild, “that is not the reason we don’t trust you with items and you know it.”

“It was a great idea,” Time complimented the four, “now, I do believe Four needs his weapon back.”

“Of course,” Lorule nodded. 

They all went closer together, ready to merge. With no trouble at all, being perfectly in sync and just colorful copies of one another, Lorule, Faron, Lanayru, and Eldin became Warriors. As a bonus, he didn’t even have the injuries that Eldin had somehow. 

“Thank you,” Four took the Four Sword back gratefully. This had been the easiest split so far and he was grateful. 

Just goes to show that Warriors is somehow the most stable out of any of them, both in mental capacity and in his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So about this fic, I started it months ago, it was supposed to be the third chapter instead of Wild, but I just couldn’t write it. I knew that at least one split had to be the classic Four Sword scenario of it just multiplying the character and I figured Warriors was the best one to do that. That being said, that made his story a little boring since he was fine with merging and staying apart. I toyed around the idea of having his four be overly egotistical because now they could fight whole armies alone, but action sequences aren’t my forte, so that had to be cut. 
> 
> I am so sorry to any Warriors fans out there.


	7. Odyssey

Sky thought himself as competent, polite, and strong, hopefully. From the sounds of the other’s adventures, he was the only one to fight a god and win, so that had to mean something. Right?

He had a lot of faults and he would be the first to admit it. He fought a god, sure, but he also didn’t kill him fast enough for him not to curse him and the other Links. His endurance was worst than Time’s and he was pretty sure he was seventy. He could fall asleep anywhere at anytime, though he never felt well rested. 

It was the last problem that reared its head into the light when Sky opened four pairs of eyes after waking up in the middle of the night. 

“What the?” A new Sky yawned, rubbed his eyes, and looked at his right hand, “oh.”

Four replicas were holding a Four Sword in one hand and a different sword in their left. In his tired haze, Sky had accidentally grabbed both the Master Sword and the Four Sword at once. Four had warned him about leaving the two swords next to each other!

The first Sky was reminiscent of when he was but a humble squire in the academy, not yet allowed to wear the green that he did now. Dressed in a baggy shirt and cloths that he used to use to sleep in class with, that Sky was exactly how he woke up on the day of the loftwing race. His hair was messy, looking like he had just gotten out of bed. In his left hand there was the Goddess Sword, Fi’s original form. His name was Prometheus. 

The second Sky had a rudimentary shield crafted from very weak wood and held items in pouches that looked scrambled together in a hurry. The random cloths of the first Sky were gone, replaced with random bits of leather armor and poorly put on chainmail. His hair was messy, but not from sleep, from looking worried and anxious. In his left hand was the Goddess Longsword, the second form of Fi. His name was Atlas.

The third Sky was dressed in all green, hair neatly tucked into his iconic cap. All armor and chainmail was put on correctly and he had no pouches. He had smile lines around his mouth, indicating that he once smiled a lot, but not anymore. In his left hand was the Goddess White Sword, the second to last form of Fi. His name was Herakles. 

The final Sky was one to behold. He was draped in a sailcloth like a robe that Zelda would wear, being pieced together into its shape with the strap of a sword’s sheath. There were parts of the sailcloth that looked red, stained from blood to make a trail of the color from his neck to the ground, almost like a scarf. His hair was no longer dirty blond, but a pale and ragged platinum, which drifted in the wind slightly. His eyes were all golden, light spewing forth into the world. In his left hand was the Master Sword, looking as radiant as ever. His name was Helios.

“I need more sleep,” Prometheus moaned. 

Atlas nodded in agreement, “why did we place the sword there? We’re never that careless with her!”

Atlas started to mumble to himself, panicking about all the possibilities of trouble that they got themselves into. Four was already at his wit’s end with the Links taking his sword, what if now was when he finally snapped? They didn’t mean to take it, they weren’t like Wind or Warriors. They couldn’t even use the excuse that it was the only option, like Wild or Twilight. They were just dumb!

“Calm down,” Herakles put a hand on Atlas’ shoulder, “we have to stay calm in order to merge again.”

“Right, of course,” Atlas smiled, though he was clearly faking it, “nothing to be worried about!”

Helios placed down his Four Sword and looked at his reflection in the Master Sword’s blade. He touched his face absentmindedly, tracing his eyes as a look of concern grew. 

“My eyes?” He could tell that, beside the moon and the dying embers of a fire, his eyes were the only thing giving them light. “Why are they?”

Herakles looked confused as well, “magic?”

“It...it doesn’t feel like it,” he shook his head. He felt no rush of energy that was always there in the different realms or when Fi was outside of the sword. The glowing light, it was like it was apart of him. 

“Should we be worried?” Prometheus tilted his head, “and, more importantly, should we be worried about the Master Sword?”

The sword always came first. 

“Of course, we broke her!” Atlas shouted before quieting down, “we’ve never seen multiple versions of her exist at once without time travel and that’s not what is happening here. What happens when we merge? Is the Master Sword going to be one or will it be broken? Is Fi okay?”

At the mention of Fi, he started to hyperventilate. Leaning against a tree with one hand, he dropped his Four Sword and tried to breathe. 

“Oh, Hylia,” Herakles paled, “I didn’t even think about Fi.”

“There’s no way she also split with us,” Helios denied, “at least, I hope not.”

Fi, he looked at the blade, can you hear me? 

She had been dormant for so long, but it was worth a shot. Staying silent for a whole minute rewarded him with a faint glow of the blade. He breathed a sigh of relief. 

“She’s okay,” he told the others, “the swords are probably...magical copies?”

Herakles shrugged, “why not? We’ve seen weirder things.”

Atlas was finally breathing normally, “thank Hylia!”

“We should probably merge now,” Herakles decided, “before Four sees us.”

“Of course,” Prometheus smiled. 

The three walked together, Atlas picking up his Four Sword, and waited for their fourth member to join them. Helios was hesitant, he still wanted to know what was going on with his eyes.

"Can we wait?' He asked hopefully and gestured to his face, "whatever this is, it won't go away with merging. It will still be inside of us and I would like to know what it is. So?"

Before any of the three Skys could answer, there was a shifting behind them. One of the Links yawned and Helios could feel their eyes watching him specifically.

"Why is there a cat here?" It was a very tired Hyrule, "or a demon?"

"Go back to sleep," Prometheus said politely and hoped that he could only make out glowing orbs and not three too many bodies, "I...uh...think these are what fairies look like in this Hyrule."

A painfully obvious to anyone who was sane. Luckily, when you are time traveling with alternate versions of yourself and you admit that fact, you are not staying sane for ten more minutes. Sadly, Sky forgot he was talking to Mr. I-can-turn-into-a-fairy.

"Really?!" He bolted up, "I want to see!"

“Nice going," Herakles said from the darkness.

"You think of a better lie!"

"Hyrule, please don't panic," Helios begged as the brunet ran up to him, seeing all four of them now that he was closer, "we accidentally picked up the Four Sword and-"

"Why are your eyes glowing?" Hyrule ignored panicking and went straight to curiosity, "it's almost like-"

"It's not magic."

"-sacred power!"

He choked on air, "excuse me? As in, the Sacred Realm?"

Hyrule beamed, "as in the power of the gods! Your eyes are glowing like the Triforce, like what some of the other’s Princess Zeldas can do. You have sacred power in you, that's incredible, Sky!"

Like Zelda...like Hylia.

"Why is it in me?" He back away nervously.

Atlas mirrored his anxiety ten fold and clutched his Goddess Longsword tightly, "have we always had it? Is it going to kill us?"

"No," Prometheus laughed, "this is a good thing, isn't it? The power of gods, we've been blessed!"

"Or cursed," Herakles mumbled, but nobody heard him.

"Hyrule," Helios got back on track, "why do you recognize this?"

"My whole job is to watch over the Triforce," he explained, "if I can't recognize similar power after watching it for years then I failed at my job. You wielded the Triforce, right?"

"Not really," he answered, "I collected it and only had it together for a second before using it. It never did for me what it did for you, or Wild's Zelda, I think."

"Hmm," Hyrule hummed, "maybe it came from your goddess. You grew up with her, so it could've, I don't know, washed out on you."

"That makes no sense."

Hyrule shrugged, "I don't know what else to say. You should probably fuse, Four's going to get mad if he sees you like this. At this point, I'm the only one who hasn't stolen the Four Sword."

"It was an accident!" Atlas protested, "we were tired, but what about the power-"

Atlas was louder than he anticipated, shouted out the part that it was an accident, and that woke some people up. There was some shuffling and Wild, Time, and, of course, Four all shifted up, looking for the origins of the noise. Four's face wouldn't stop frowning for three more days after this occurrence when he saw what was going on.

"Sky," he scrunched up his face, "I thought better of you."

"Ahh," Atlas ran his fingers through his hair, dropping his Four Sword once again, and groaned.

"Can I have glowing eyes if I take the sword a second time?" Wild joked, "because that looks awesome!"

"Wild!"

"Sorry, Four."

"It really was an accident," Herakles vouched, "we meant to grab the Master Sword."

"We were going to fuse, but," Prometheus pointed at Helios, "he was worried about his eyes."

Helios smiled sheepishly at the three new heroes, "I was concerned, sorry."

Four sighed, "it's alright."

He face and tone of voice disagreed, not that anyone was going to push him. Time leered, or more looked and his scarred eye made him look like he was leering, at Helios, Wild did too.

"Sacred power?" He figured out immediately, "you wouldn't happen to have the Triforce on you, would you?"

He shook his head, "you recognize it, too?"

Wild spoke up, "it looks exactly like Zelda's power when she still had them. The same color. Can I test something?"

Helios was going to regret this, but he nodded.

After a flash of cyan scientific magic, Wild held something in his hand. It was shimmering, reflecting the golden light, and wobbled around as he moved it towards Helios' eyes. It smelled horrible, what it was, and, upon closer inspection, it a sickly purple and pink. Wild made sure not to actually touch him, but it was close. Then, there was a hissing noise from the object and it shriveled away from the light.

Wild moved the object back to his chest and inspected it. Smiling like a mad man, he tossed whatever the object was into the woods and out of sight.

"What was that?" Helios asked.

"Infected bokoblin guts," the grin didn't need to be seen to hear it in his voice.

"What?" That was what was a centimeter away from him? He suddenly wanted to go and wash his face.

"It reacted poorly against your eyes, so it must be Hylia's power," he explained, "I've only seen monsters do that when Zelda's power attacked Ganon."

"Yes, but why put guts to my face? Why do you have guts?"

"Why don't you? I'm sorry I don't have an actual bokoblin in the slate, Twilight wouldn't let me."

Time rubbed his face with the palm of his hand, "I am so glad Twilight adopted you, just so that I don't have to deal with the brunt of your antics."

"You love me, Gramps!"

"That just proved what we already knew," Helios refocused, "that doesn't answer why I have the power of the gods!"

"And why only you?" Four dug through his things and found his lantern. Lighting it up, he could more clearly make out the differences between the four Skys. "What is the deciding factor that's splitting you?"

Prometheus looked down at himself, "I look like what I did before we started our quest."

"I'm what we looked like during and after," Herakles added.

"I look like..." Atlas searched for the right words to say, "anxiety? I guess, I don't know!"

Helios gestured vaguely at his robe outfit, "I look like if Impa dressed me."

"What about the dried blood matches up with Impa?" Wild looked at the back of the outfit, "wait, stupid question. Impa would definitely try to kill you if she wanted to dress you and you said no."

“Hmm,” Four hummed, “what the hell?”

He touched Herakles’ shoulder and, when he retracted his hand, both of them were glowing in the places that they touched. It went away after a moment, but still weird. 

“It’s not just you then,” he pointed to Helios, “it reacted to me…”

“Could it be the Hero’s Spirit?” Prometheus suggested, “like how Twilight was split based on level of darkness and light, but with how much of the spirit we hold?”

“One way to find out,” Helios gestured for him to take the Master Sword. 

Prometheus freed his hands, carefully placing his his weapons on the ground, and reached for the familiar blade. The second he touched it, though, his hand burned and someone had to take the blade fast. 

He stared are the growing redness of his hand, “huh…”

“That proves that correct for three of you,” Four looked at Atlas, “do you want-“

“No!” He interrupted, “I don’t want Fi to burn me, I’m content not knowing.”

“Fair enough. Now that’s that’s figured out, I’m sure we would all like to go back to sleep.”

“The sooner the better,” Atlas agreed and Prometheus nodded along. 

“I hope this isn’t lasting,” Herakles pointed to him and Helios. 

They four Skys nodded and held their blades once again in the correct hands. 

What should’ve happened should have been like all of the other times. A flash of light after a goodbye and the person was whole once more. The Four Sword was returned to Four and no one was any the wiser, unless they saw it happened. 

This time, something went wrong. 

Inside of a flash of light, it was almost the reverse. The golden beams shooting out of Helios’ eyes turned off and the lantern in Four’s hand snuffed out. A sickening crack was heard and some groaning occurred. 

“What happened?!” Wild’s voice called from the darkness. 

“Sky?” Time lit his hand on fire using one of his spells. 

“I’m okay?” Sky, now back in one piece, was laying on the ground, thrown on his back by some magical force. He was clutching his hand, which looked way worse than it should’ve. Burned around the gloves and the glove itself melting. Strangely, it was the hand opposite the Master Sword was held. 

It was the Four Sword that burnt him. 

Four picked up his blade and inspected it, eyes growing wide with fear. Running from the gemstone that was embedded into the hilt to the end of the blade, was a crack. The crack looked like a void, nothing was there and it felt solid to the touch. It was as if the very concept of nothing replaced a part of the metal. 

“This-this shouldn’t be possible,” Four’s voice was shaking, “the Four Sword is perfect, it can’t be broken.”

But it was, and something was very, very wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized that I needed to start laying ground work for the final chapter, sorry Sky for taking a backseat in the end!
> 
> Sky’s parts were split like Twilight’s, as stated, with just alternating levels of divinity/spirit. They were named after gods and heroes from Greek myths. Prometheus was the most mortal of them and Prometheus in the myths created man. Atlas was supposed to represent Sky’s nervousness about protecting everyone as he went on quests and Atlas held up the sky and traveled the world. Herakles is the Greek name for Hercules and both of them were ultrapowerful heroes that rose above their station as mortals. Helios was named after the sun god to complement Sun!
> 
> See ya next time in Hyrule’s chapter!


	8. Honor

Four looked on the verge of tears at the sight of his precious blade deteriorating. If it was anyone else but Sky who last held it, well, there would be one last Link in the group. 

He declared that under no circumstances should anyone else so much as be near the Four Sword. The deal he had with Legend was put on hold, though he didn’t mind much and was getting used to the voices in his head. Four switched to an ancient blade that Wild gave him, worried about further damaging his sword. 

For all his years as a smith, he was at a lost as to why the Four Sword was breaking. He encountered physical, mental, and magical problems alike, but none of those explained what was happening, at least as he could tell. 

The sword was just…wrong. A void of space that was impenetrable meshed with the cold metal. Four checked it himself, he even had some Minish look over it, the four elements were still powering the blade. It should work just fine. 

He shook his head at the thought, he needed someone to look over it. Someone more in-tuned to the elements and the forces of nature. 

He needed a Zelda. 

Luckily, Hyrule was the one to propose this, there was a Hyrule that had not one, but two Princess Zeldas. One who had close contact with the Triforce of Wisdom her whole life and another who had first hand experience facing dark magic. 

Even if they couldn’t find out the source of the problem, they could probably fix the sword for now.

It took them three weeks, but they eventually found a portal that led them to the correct Hyrule. Even better, the portal dropped them off right in front of the castle. 

Hyrule sighed with relief, “I did not want to deal with cultists today. Get inside before someone sees us!”

“Cultists?” Warriors asked before being shoved into the building. 

The castle was no way as intricate as it could be. Years of war, famine, and disaster left it a hollow shell of the majesty that Legend’s time knew. To its credit, after the arrival of Princess Zelda the First, life and beauty was slowly regaining its form. 

Speaking of…

“Link!” A female voice shrieked, “you’re back!”

Hyrule’s face burst into a smile as he caught sight of the Princess of old running down some stairs. Gone was her poofy dress that she slept in as she wore boots, black pants, and a pink corset over a white blouse. She rammed herself into Hyrule and hugged him fiercely before promptly kissing him once on the lips. 

She turned around, ignoring Hyrule’s stuttering, and looked at the other Links. 

“These must be the friends you introduced to Zelly while I was gone,” she noted, “greetings, I am Princess Zelda the First!”

“Yes, indeed,” Warriors bowed his head, mostly to hide his shocked expression at the show of affection their friend just received, “you can call me Warriors, your Highness.”

They all introduced themselves, except for Four. The Princess noticed his silence and raised an eyebrow at Hyrule. 

“This is Four,” he answered for the man, who bolted out of his thoughts, “we actually need your help, along with her Majesty. Four broke his weapon and we don’t know what’s wrong with it.”

“That should be easy,” the Princess declared, “let me go get Zelly and we’ll get started. You can take your friends to the dining room, so there should be enough space for everyone to sit down and eat afterwards.”

She skipped away as Hyrule waved after her. 

“So,” Warriors leaned onto his shoulder, “since when did you have a girlfriend?”

“Since you didn’t, Captain,” he rebuked, “follow me.”

He led them as promised to a massive dining room. From the looks of it, it was the most decorated and cared for room in the castle. Most of them sat down at the table and waited for the Zeldas to arrive. Four laid his sword on the table and was muttering to himself and Hyrule rocked back and forth on his heels. If what was happening was dangerous, her Majesty had a tendency to over react. 

After a couple of minutes, the doors opened again and Princess Zelda the First walked in with Queen Zelda. Queen Zelda was in a fuchsia ballgown, though Hyrule knew it hid knives all over it, and had a simple golden tiara placed on her flowing hair. She was coronated recently, even though she had been the sole ruler for years. 

“Your Majesty!” Hyrule bowed out of habit, “thank you for coming.”

She rolled her eyes, “really, Link? Please stop addressing me like that, you hold more sway over this country than I do. Now, what is the issue with a weapon?”

“Here it is.”

Hyrule led the two to Four’s spot at the table. The Queen looked intrigued by the mystical glow that came from the blade and the Princess was giggling with glee. 

“Interesting,” the Queen went to pick it up when a voice halted her. 

“Don’t!” Four screamed suddenly, Red got away from him, “I’m sorry, your Majesty, but it is paramount no one touches this blade.”

She carried her hand back to her side, “I see. Magical, then? What does it do?”

“Is it cursed?” The Princess teased. 

“It can split the wielder into four parts,” Four explained, “though how varies. It can be based off emotions, ideals, moments of one’s life, or even just based on skill.”

“What caused this?” The Queen pointed, but didn’t touch, at the black growing void. 

He slumped, “we-I don’t know. I forged this blade myself, it isn’t supposed to break. It might be from overuse, since almost everyone here has used it at some point. No one else was supposed to wield it except me.”

His eyes swapped colors for a brief moment, showing the ongoing internal conflict he was a part of at the moment. 

“Almost everyone?” The Princess asked, “even Link here?”

Four shook his head, “he’s the only one to not have. Which I am grateful for him listening to me.”

He glared at the others. Time looked confused before Twilight whispered to him, something about telling him later. He never did find out about his short time with the Four Sword. 

“Oh,” she looked disappointed, “well, what powers this?”

“The four elemental stones and light magic. I have already checked with the-some friends, and the elemental stones are fine, as far as I’m aware.”

“So it’s the light magic or the blade itself that is the issue,” the Queen concluded, “I’m sorry, but I must touch the blade if I am to help.”

“You can’t!” Four argued, “it’s been burning anyone who touches it and we can’t risk anyone else splitting.”

“Then can you touch it?” 

Four shrunk back sadly, for the past month he had been carrying the sword with a cloth around the handle. His own sword, betraying him. 

“Then we are at an impasse,” she continued, “I assume you wish to fix this blade and that is why you are here? There is nothing I can do without examining it or even someone who knows magic examining it.”

“What if,” Sky spoke up for the first time, “Four, what if the sword is only burning its users?”

“What do you mean?”

“The Master Sword burnt one of me while we were split,” he started, “but the Four Sword only burnt after we were put together. Since then, no one but a previous wielder has held it.”

“Let’s test it!” The Princess clapped her hands together as both Hyrule and Four shouted no. “Aw…”

“Even so, there’s still the risk of splitting,” Four mumbled to himself for a minute before looking at Hyrule, “I can’t believe I’m considering this. Can you handle potentially splitting? It’s too dangerous for anyone but a hero to try right now and you’re the last one.”

Hyrule glanced at the Princess nervously, who gave him a thumbs up in support, “sure, why not?”

Hesitantly, the smith backed away from his sword, allowing Hyrule full access. Outstretching his hand, he grabbed the hilt. No one breathed as he split. 

There was no burning sensation, which was good for Hyrule, but the transformation was different. It felt like Hyrule’s brain was going through the ringer, personalities were clashed against one another and it felt terrible. This was a bad idea!

Instead of light revealing four people, the light just wasn’t there. One moment Hyrule was one, then there were four identical quadruplets on the ground. It felt as if everyone blinked suddenly and their eyes all felt sore. 

“What the hell?” One of the Hyrules swore. He wore even more modest clothes than the hero they knew, which was saying something. No color filled his persona, only a pale off-eggshell loose tunic and muddy brown pants. 

“Is that supposed to feel like teleporting a million times a second, because that hurt!” A second Hyrule proclaimed. He was running his hands through his hair and clutched the Four Sword tight to him. He looked ready to fight anyone in a heartbeat. He wore a great tunic with a burned away shield on his back. Maps and bottles were tied to a belt he wore. 

“Are you alright, your Highness, your Majesty?” The third one stood up immediately, seeking to address the crown. He wore what constituted as the royal guard’s uniform in this Hyrule. Brown belt, a tabard proclaiming the Hylian crest, and a red under tunic. His hair was funnily enough in a tiny ponytail, removing the mess of hair out of his face. 

The final one said nothing. He was shaking, but, unlike the second Hyrule, he tossed the blade in his hands away. He wore a raveling tunic that was long enough that he didn’t need pants. His hair was long as well, covering his eyes and going to his shoulder. Another notable thing about him was he was 12. 

“Oh. My. Goddess!” The Princess squealed, “I’ve seen the Triforce and even that wasn’t as magical as this!”

Four looked concerned at the 12 year old. The Four Sword had split between ages before, such as in Time’s case, but never had only one split to a different age. Everyone else, while acting different, were still themselves, just with a color swap. 

Speaking of, everyone was watching silently, debating whether to speak up about the events unfolding. Most just sat still with morbid curiosity. 

“This isn’t supposed to happen,” he shook his head, “every time you guys split it gets weirder and weirder.”

“This-this is-“ the Queen was at lost for words, “when you said split into four, I never expected this! Link, are you alright?”

“Peachy,” the first Hyrule groaned as he sat up, “not the worst hit I’ve taken and it wasn’t even a hit. I need to retire, guess I need to persevere first to do that.”

Both of the Zeldas, as well as the Links, were taken aback by the attitude this Hyrule spoke with. He had some bite that wasn’t normally there and he glared at anyone who looked at him. 

“You can stop with the looks,” Perseverance sneered, “you seriously expecting Hyrule to be all nice? Can’t survive in the world on nice.”

“We’re alright, your Highness, your Majesty,” the knight Hyrule ignored his counterpart, “but how are you two?”

“We’re fine, Link,” the Princess wondered why he was acting like that when it struct her, “oh, you look just like the day when we knighted you! I really wish you would wear your uniform more often, it makes you look cute.”

“Just doing my duty to protect the Royal Family,” he, Duty, insisted. 

“Then that means,” the Queen looked at the second Hyrule, who jumped at her voice, “you are acting like when I sent you to rescue Zelda. Still nervous, no, vigilant after your first quest.”

“That’s right,” Vigilance nodded, “there’s always monsters to fight, always have to keep on watch.”

“And you, Link?” The Queen kneeled down, her dress poofing into a circle around her, to be on the level of the 12 year old, “I’d recognize the boy who saved me any day. Do you recognize me?”

The boy hesitantly nodded and pointed to her crown. He knew her as royalty, but who knows if he actually remembered her. 

“Do you recognize her?” She pointed her her great aunt, who was messing with Duty’s collar. 

The boy shook his head. 

“That’s okay,” she patted his head carefully, “I never thought I’d see the day where the innocent boy would return.”

She said the last bit with a sad smile on her face. The boy, Innocence, titled his head in confusion. 

“So,” Four spoke up, “that’s good and all, but now you can see the affects of the Four Sword. This in and of itself is imperfect, they aren’t supposed to split like this.”

“Can I borrow this?” The Queen pointed to Innocence’s sword that he pushed aside and picked it up with he nodded. She touched it with no problems and was able to inspect the blade closely. 

The blade she held had a red gemstone on it. It glowed and swirled with some magical power and it seemed to react warmly to her touch. A worrying sight was that the cracks had grown even more. Surely, if the the void destroyed instead of replaced, the sword would be nothing but fragments of metal. 

“This gemstone,” she showed it to Four, “I assume this is the elemental stone?”

“It holds its powers, yes,” Four explained, “that’s the fire element.”

“This one’s green!” The Princess gestured to Duty’s sword. 

“Mine’s purple,” Vigilance added. 

“Blue,” Perseverance said plainly. 

“No matter what,” Four began, “the colors never change. That’s how we know the elements aren’t the problem, but the more the Four Sword is used…”

The swords all shared the trait of looking more and more like the black of night than the silver of clouds. 

“May I, Link?” The Princess asked and Duty immediately gave the sword to her, “I sense no dark magic in here, so that’s not the issue.”

“I sense,” the Queen closed her eyes before gasping, “too much light magic.”

“How is too much light magic a problem?” Sky was the first Link besides Four and Hyrule to break the silence. 

“Too much of a good thing,” Perseverance supplied, “I know the Triforce did nothing good for me…”

The Princess frowned at him. 

“…besides waking up Zelda.”

She smiled. 

“Where is the excess coming from?” Four wanted to know. 

“I don’t know, but its almost like its being overloaded with light magic. Some of it recent, some of it months old, like its been growing. The sword can’t hold it all.”

“It could have been pushed over the limit by me,” Sky winced, “but if its been there for a while, this isn’t a singular issue.”

Duty nodded, “that would make sense, you had a lot of light magic stored in you.”

“So, we just need to get rid of it,” for the first time in months, Four looked calm, “the sanctuary in my time should be able to remove any excess. That should fix the problem hopefully.”

There was an unspoken “and I can finally split again.” Blue was getting antsy, especially with the fear of never being able to split again if the Four Sword was broken for good. 

“Thank you so much for your help,” he told them, “now, Hyrule, please get back together. We need to find a portal to my home-Hyrule?”

Innocence was missing. Where the 12 year old once sat was now empty. Most likely, he slipped out through the door after the Queen took his sword. 

“Are we really this shocked that Hyrule of all people got lost?” Twilight looked at all of their stunned faces. 

“Uh, Zelly?” The Princess looked at her niece, who was chuckling. 

“He’s always been like this,” she laughed, “traveled the entire country just to save me, he’s probably going home.”

“Where’s home?” The Princess looked at Duty. 

“That’s hard to answer,” he apologized, “we never stayed in one place, we set up camp and move on.”

“If we’re fast,” Perseverance started to walk out of the room, “we can catch him before he leaves. We were pretty stupid at his age.”

“Let’s go!” Vigilance, “I saw him turn to the right as he left.”

They all rushed out to find the lost kid. Princess Zelda ran ahead along with Queen Zelda, much to Duty’s annoyance as he jogged behind. They split up and managed to find him in five minutes. Vigilance found him looking around a room full of paintings and he was gazing at them. 

“C’mon,” he took the kid’s hand, who followed behind quietly and obediently. 

Once they were back together, the four Hyrules stood side by side. 

“I am going to make you wear your uniform now that I remember it,” the Princess joked. 

“Back to normal now,” Four bounced, excited to finally have a solution in sight. 

The Hyrule’s stared at each other and silently fused back to one. 

Four tried not to shake and he took the Four Sword back, the cracks now covering 75% of the blade. The black void could now be seen to be glowing softly and even holding the blade in a wrapping didn’t stop the burning sensation. 

“Thank you so much,” he repeated, “I’m sure we will solve this problem shortly.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot who helped me out on Hyrule and his names, but thank you so much! Sorry for not remembering, its been awhile.
> 
> One more chapter to go! Four’s chapter!


	9. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Four gets the Four Sword!

Four had never been this cheery before. He skipped as he walked forward and his eyes glinted a vibrant red. If you said someone’s eyes glowed red, normally it would’ve been a bad thing, but here…

“Red’s just excited,” he told them. 

The group followed his lead, leapt through any portal that would show up in their way. The moment he recognized the trees of his Hyrule and saw the peak of Hyrule Castle in the distance, he started running, though in a different direction. The others had to sprint to keep up with him. 

“How does someone with such tiny legs,” Warriors complained, “run that fast?”

It was the Green in him, Four would’ve answered, had he not been yards ahead. 

“Where are we going?” Twilight asked him. 

“The Four Sword Sanctuary,” he grinned, “would’ve been better to get into the Elemental Sanctuary, but we don’t have a 100 years.”

He ran them through the trees until ruins appeared. They didn’t look that old, but were instead ruined by explosions and signs of battle. The stone pillars were cracked or toppled and the murals on the walls were chipped away by the strangely strong winds. 

Four pointed at a pedestal in the middle of the shrine, “this pedestal is enchanted to seal anything, dark or light magic doesn’t matter. All I should need to do is lay the Four Sword down and wait.”

He did just that, plunging the weapon into the slot in the stone, and sat down, crossing his legs as he did. 

Everyone was silent and, honestly, a little bored. They didn’t know how long this would take, but they expected something more. Instead of a massive beam of light splitting the heavens and healing the blade, the cracks on the sword glowed faintly. 

Wild sighed. 

Twilight looked at him, noting his concerned face, “what’s the matter, cub?”

He shook his head, “I’ve seen something like this before, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

Twilight looked around them, “the shrine?”

“No, the sword,” Wild started to explain, “the cracks, the light, it’s familiar.”

“You’ve broken enough weapons already, I wouldn’t be surprised if you broke a magical weapon-hey!”

Wild’s eyes snapped at the mention of a magical weapon. In a fluid motion, he spun around and swiped the Master Sword right off of Sky’s back. 

“Wh-Wild?” Sky protested, but it was too late. 

The Hero of Wild, protector of the Princess and all of Hyrule, holding the most holy and powerful blade in the entire history of the world, smashed it over a rock like it was a twig. Swiftly, he swung the sword at a stone pillar and it exploded in shards of light. 

“WHAT THE HELL, WILD?” Sky was furious and ready to murder. 

“Shh, kill me later when you have a sword,” Wild waved away the look, “I knew I recognized it, look!”

He pointed to the fragments of the Master Sword that fell on the ground that were slowly disappearing into light. They laid in a shape that outlined the blade that made the sword look like it was full of cracks. 

Four turned around to see all of the commotion; he started to pick up what Wild was laying down. 

“The Master Sword lost its power in your time and can’t handle you using it,” he thought out loud, “and it vanishes in a similar way. Excess light magic could be another cause, built up from-“

He looked at all of them, “the light magic is from the time you all have used the Four Sword! The Master Sword couldn’t handle too many users either. She can still be used, it’s just weaker without being taken care of properly in so long.”

“Fi described herself as a library or database of everything she came in contact to,” Sky added, “she’s running out of space to keep things, is that what you are suggesting?”

“Yes,” Four looked back at his sword, “the Four Sword isn’t as powerful, but it still should be able to do a lot of things. It’s overloading with information right now on all of you, it probably remembers every time we’ve split and all our different parts!”

“What does this mean?” Time asked. 

“First off,” he laughed, “none of you are so much as looking at my sword after this and I will actively hunt you down if you do.”

“Fair enough,” Warriors shrugged. 

“Secondly,” he continued, “I don’t know, if the light magic is sealed away, then will the overloading memory be sealed too? We’ll just have to see. Speaking of…”

He started to walk to his blade, believing that enough time had passed. The cracks had receded so that only the hilt shown any wear and tear, but that could be easily fixed. From the looks of it, the Four Sword was back to normal. 

While no one was looking, Sky smacked Wild on the back of the head. 

“Never do that again,” he threatened, “unless its in battle.”

Four placed his hand on the hilt, a smile on his face. If anyone was looking at him head on, they could tell that his eyes were quickly shifting from red, to green, to blue, to purple in a fraction of a second. 

And that’s how they would’ve known something terrible was about to happen. 

As soon as the Four Sword was lifted from the pedestal, light surged out of the pit. Something went wrong, maybe there was too much magic to contain, maybe the shrine wasn’t fit for this, it didn’t matter. The light shot suddenly back into the sword and it exploded without warning. 

The shards launched into the ground, the sky, and the Links. The shards that hit nothing flew a couple feet or yards before freezing in air, glowing needles suspending in motion with nothing holding them. Some of the heroes got hit by shrapnel, but it was nothing compared to what the smallest hero got hit with. 

Four was knocked onto his back and looked to be unconscious. His tunic was cut to shreds, revealing the protective gear he had started to wear underneath. His hair was chopped off partially in places and it was all over the place. The shards that hit his skin didn’t seem to cut him, weirdly enough, but instead touched him, leaving a golden freckle where they landed. His face looked like sand had been tossed on it with all the golden light pouring from him. 

“That wasn’t supposed to happen, right?” Wind asked. 

“Wild, don’t touch that!” Time commanded the feral child, who was about to poke one of the floating shrapnel, “is everyone, besides the obvious, alright?”

A choruses of yeses rang so everyone felt comfortable giving their full attention to the fallen Hero of Men. 

“Is there anything we can do?” Hyrule was hesitant to draw near. He could tell Four was breathing at least. 

Before anyone could move, Four’s eyes snapped open, but they weren’t his. Instead of being blue, green, red, purple, or anything else that would be normal for him, they were pure white. They looked like Twilight’s Dusk or Sky’s Helios, taking the color from the former and the power it radiated from the latter. 

“Four?” Wind asked hopefully. 

The eyes were unblinking and they couldn’t tell where they were looking. There were no pupils or irises to see, so they could be pointed at them or the sky or anywhere and they wouldn’t know. 

“Say something!”

The hero did not speak or move. He simply was there. 

Until Time took a step forward. 

The moment anyone drew near, Four vanished in a puff of smoke. Light magic filled everyone’s eyes as Four was no longer Four. 

Now standing, no, hovering in front of them was a celestial being. Cloaked in a cape of silver with blood red feathers at the end, this figure loomed above, now taller than Time. Its hair looked like it was made of pure gold, which matched the pointed golden spaulders that lay on its shoulders. In the middle of the spaulder was a four sided gemstone, each side reflecting a different color. It’s face still had freckles of light magic, but now it’s eyes were closed.

Until they opened, and everyone wished they stayed closed. 

The eyes at least had irises this time, but the pupils were debatable. Green irises swirled, which was a big contrast from the silver and gold. The issue was where the pupils once were, there were another set of eyes. These were blue and looked ready to kill. It was like this for both eyes, creating four in total while taking the place of only two. 

Instinctively, Wild pulled out a weapon, everyone else was wary but followed suit. Whatever was going on they couldn’t chance this being to be peaceful. 

“Has anyone ever seen something like this before?” Twilight looked at Legend. 

“Why are you looking at me?” He complained, “I don’t know what the hell that thing is.”

“Can that be Four?” Hyrule asked, horrified, “could light magic do this?”

No one answered him, they didn’t know. As experienced as the heroes were, light magic was the Royal Family’s forte, the Link merely wielded light bows every once in a while.

Then, the figure locked its eyes onto something in the air: the shards. It extended its hand outside of its cloak, revealing an arm that was coated in fire. The arm swung in an arc in the air and some of the shards surged towards it, going together in a flash of light and the figure held a replica of the Four Sword. 

Now it had a weapon, great...

The figure took the sword and swung it in a full circle all around it. As the sword passed four different points, an orb appeared. They were perfect spheres, one held a purple mountain inside, another had a stormy ocean, the third had a blazing inferno, and the last one had nothing. The orbs followed an orbit around the figure, floating around any obstacles that would come in their way. 

“What is it doing?” Warriors didn’t like this one bit, it was planning something. 

If only they had the Master Sword, they could have a chance to ask Fi what was going on. Thanks, Wild.

“Why are we just standing around?” Legend hefted his sword up. 

“LEGEND, NO!”

It was too late, the figure’s eyes locked onto the sword in Legend’s hands, saw it raise, and took it as an attack. 

It raised the Four Sword and swung, but not at anyone. It just pointed it at Legend and the fiery inferno orb flew in that direction. He barely had anytime to jump before fireballs were chucked at his feet. Sadly, he jumped into one of the still floating shards and cut his cheek. 

And that’s how the battle began.

There was no time to think, the heroes just had to act. Some of them had dealt with possession, and the solution was usually to beat the life out of the person. They just had to pray Four wasn’t actually this creature. 

The figure saw the oncoming heroes and didn’t hold back. It slashed twice in the air, causing the water and earth orb to attack. Water seeped out of the ground and the ground shook underneath, knocking a couple of them off their feet. 

Legend was the first to reach the figure, slashing at the bottom of the robes, that being the only place he could reach it. The strange thing was, when his blade definitely hit the figure’s legs underneath the cloak, nothing happened. The sword hit something with a clang and shot off. He backflipped away when the Four Sword was shot at his direction. 

“We need a plan!” Warriors argued as he dodged fire. 

“Any suggestions?” Wild’s lance shattered on impact as it hit the same place as Legend’s sword. 

Warriors noted how the figure was trying to keep all of them in their line of sight, never letting anyone go too far from its left or right. He came to the realization that its double vision probably hurt it more than helped. The creature didn’t blink, but the eyes showed strain at looking at so much. 

“Split up, divide its attention,” he shouted at everyone, “get behind it!”

The heroes scattered. Wind, Wild, and Sky were the ones to attempt to get behind the creature while the other five stayed in front as a distraction. The green eyes were split between looking at Warriors and Time while the blue eyes painfully kept track of Twilight and Legend. This left Hyrule in the background, free to do what he pleased without much visual. 

Wind slid under the floating figure easily, while Wild climbed a nearby tree and jumped over it. Sky slashes at the legs and actually managed to cut the cloak. He hit the opposite side that Wild attacked and whatever was under there allowed the blade to fly cleanly past. 

The splitting up looked like it was helping. The figure’s actions were slower, and it looked to be in pain of keeping track of all of then. 

That was when they learned what the empty orb could do.

The figure raised the Four Sword over its head, pointing it skyward, and the orb started to vibrate. It flew in its orbit faster than they could make out before stopping suddenly behind the figure, blocking Wild’s attack with a rusty sword. 

There was a scream, multiple screams, as the orb generated lightning and shocked everyone behind it. 

The figure grimaced with pain and turned around to see its victims. The motion flew its hair into the air, letting the other five heroes know that it had another set of eyes on the back of its head. The eyes were purple with the pupils again being another set, this time red. 

“Are you guys okay?!” Hyrule shot lightning in response, aiming for the metal armor of the figure. 

“We’re all good!” Wind called out, “all of us have been struck by lightning before!”

They would have to discuss that at a later date on why that was not a positive.

Some good did come out of the experiment, though. The clear orb rotated around, showing that it was cracked where Wild struck it, but it quickly healed in seconds. The creature’s eyes were also blinking wildly now and it started lowering near the ground. 

“What now?” Hyrule looked to the captain. 

What else, except for the Four Sword to do its job. Apparently done with the pain, the creature gripped the blade tightly and split. 

“Why do you hate us Hylia?” Legend cursed at the sky as light flashed and four Fours were standing before them. 

They all looked like the Four they knew, but his outline and not his color scheme. One was made of stone, moving around using the dirt at their feet. One was made of water, only solidified by pieces of ice floating around it. One was made of fire and magma. The final one was made of air, practically invisible if not for the faint green light it gave off. 

The four orbs went to their respective elements and hovered above their heads.

Wild pulled out his bow and shot one of the orbs, the water one. The arrow struck it, but again it started to heal. He did notice that the water Four froze, as in stopped moving, when the orb got hit. They were connected to the figure. 

He remembered a story that Four told him about fighting the Wind Mage Vaati. In order to kill him, he needed to strike all four of his eyes at once. Now that they knew of the Four Sword’s powers, that story made a lot more sense. Could it be repeated?

He watched as someone else launched an attack at the fire orb, the same thing happening, but it healed slightly slower than before. The water orb only just finished healing, too. 

The elemental Fours slashed and stabbed at the rest of the Links. They were also a threat, creating eight enemies that acted as one. 

Attack all of the orbs at once, Wild started to plan in his head, that freezes the elementals. But they needed to be coordinated, perfectly, and the elementals would make that hard. 

If only they had the Four Sword. 

Wait...

He looked at the shards in the air, one floating about a foot above his head. He could reach it easily. If the figure could create the Four Sword out of these fragments, then why couldn’t Wild? After all, he did the same thing with the Master Sword. 

He reached upward and Twilight caught sight of him. 

“Cub, don’t be stupid!”

Too late. Wild’s hand grasped around the shard and pulled it down. He felt the energy that would normally come with the Master Sword reforming and directed into the Four Sword piece. 

He felt a weight shift and he was now holding his own Four Sword. It was lighter than it should’ve been, and much paler, but it could get the job done. 

Wild allowed himself to be drawn into the pull the blade was giving him. His mind was at peace ever since that day he became truly one, but he could always go back into the fray. 

Wild split into four. Vai, Fire, Glacier, and Rain were back.

“Let’s go!” Vai, dressed in all Gerudo garb, grabbed Glacier’s, who wore all snow gear, hand and ran forward. 

“Time to roll,” Fire, wearing Gerudo men clothes, cracked his knuckles and looked at Rain, who wore the Zora armor, “you can handle the water one, I’m assuming.”

Rain cracked a small smile, “just deal with the fire, Fire.”

“Cub, what?” Twilight looked at the four of them, “how?”

“No time!” Vai shouted, “just let us do a thing.”

Working in sync, the four Wilds knew what to do. Fire chugged a potion of fire resistance and pulled out Daruk’s weapon, hopefully about to attack at both the fire elemental and orb at the same time. Rain pulled out Mipha’s trident and walked away at a distance, ready to throw it once Fire was in position. Vai put on the thunder helm and felt comfortable attacking the lightning orb while carrying so much metal. Glacier backed away like Rain and pulled out Revali’s bow and aimed. 

“5, 4,” Glacier started to count. 

“3,” Rain gritted his teeth. 

“2,” Vai grinned. 

“1!” Fired huffed. 

He slammed the weapon over the elementals head, hitting both targets at once. The other three Wilds hit their marks at the same time, just as planned. Vai was the only one to get hit, but the lightning bounced off her and the wind elemental could only knock her down once it stopped moving. 

They looked at each other and then at the orbs. There were cracks lining all of them and they weren’t regenerating. Their plan was working. 

“Do it again!” Vai cried. 

Sadly, that was not as easy. The elementals reactivated and were now overly cautious of the four Wilds. They couldn’t get close without receiving a full blast of the opposite energy. The fire orb shot out at Rain and Vai was swept up with water. Lightning bolted at Glacier, who barely dodged, and a rock flew at Fire’s face. 

“I guess we can’t,” Vai groaned. 

“That was really dangerous,” Twilight ran up to where they retreated while the other Links kept the Fours busy, “you could’ve just injured yourselves.”

“But it worked,” Fire pointed out, “Twilight, you take the Four Sword!”

“What?”

“The elementals won’t take their eyes off us, they wouldn’t expect you.”

He shook his head, “do you remember what happened last time?! I nearly killed you!”

“We were fine,” Fire laughed, “fine. Hey, Wind!”

“Yeah!?”

“You want the Four Sword?”

Wind’s eyes widened and his grin could put the Triforce to shame with how it was glowing, “yes!”

“No!” Twilight protested, but he could do nothing to stop it. 

At the same time, all four Wild tossed their Four Swords at Wind. Halfway in the air the blades fused together into one and Wild was back in his place. Wind caught the blade and, with a gust of wind, welcomed his parts back into the sun. 

“Attack it at the same time!” Wild told him. 

“Got it!” Zephyr raised a thumbs up, “I’m going for the earth Four.”

“I got the fire one,” Eurus nodded. 

Boreas shivered, “water.”

Notus pointed at the air one, that was his target. 

Eurus was the first to get into position. As the only one who could fly and the one most affected by the winds, he needed to get out of everyone’s way. He floated above the fire one, ready to attack at any moment. The fire elemental didn’t even know he was there. 

Zephyr was using his wind powers to push himself faster toward his target. When the time was right, he would shoot out like a bullet. Both he and Eurus would be using their weak Four Swords to knock the orbs out. 

Boreas and Notus were going to use only their wind powers to attack. Boreas’ frigid winds could freeze the water elemental more than it could handle and knock the orb off its axis. Notus’ harsh gusts of air would be no match for the wind elemental. They were fighting fire with fire, just like Fire and the fire elemental, and they were going to overpower their adversaries with their own tricks. 

“Now!” Zephyr called the command. 

Eurus dropped down on the orb and Zephyr jumped into his. Boreas and Notus waved their hands and some of the shards still in the air were pushed into the elementals and their orbs. The cracks grew and they retreated before the elementals had time to strike them back. 

Fusing back into one, Wind looked at Warriors. 

“Catch!” He shouted. 

On instinct, Warriors caught the blade without realizing what it was. He split into his four, Lanayru, Eldin, Faron, and Lorule, immediately turned around, and attacked the orbs. His parts were always more put together than the others, and they were exceptional fighters. 

Lanayru punched the earth elemental before striking the orb. Lorule tore through the water elemental with his spinner and slashed at his orb from underneath. Eldin fired from a distance with his fire rod at the fire orb. Faron did what any good fighter would’ve done and just stabbed the wind orb. 

All of this done in about three seconds. In a blink of an eye the four Warriors were there and in another they were gone. 

The cracks now covered 40% of the orbs. Slow and steady wins the race, but it couldn’t hurt to go faster. 

“Hyrule, your turn,” he handed the blade over. 

He wanted to protest, but there wasn’t much say. Duty, Perseverance, Vigilance, and Innocence appeared looking flabbergasted. Innocence was shaking his head furiously, he didn’t want to be a part of this. 

“Time to ruin our innocence,” Perseverance laughed, “c’mon, this isn’t the first time we’ve held a sword.”

Duty looked conflicted, “I would rather not have him fight, but we need to.”

“LOOK OUT!” Vigilance pushed them out of the way as a fireball soared at them. 

“We need to attack now,” Perseverance ran forward, trusting the hero in him would awaken in the young Innocence. 

Perseverance took the water elemental, Vigilance the earth, Duty took wind, and Innocence reluctantly attacked the fire elemental. It took a little whole longer for them to hit the orbs, the elementals being more on guard and more projectiles flying at them, but they did it. 

Happily, Hyrule fused together and handed the blade to Sky. Helios, Herakles, Prometheus, and Atlas felt the light magic flow through them. They could contest the powers that the elementals held. 

“Blades skyward!” Helios ordered and did so. 

Even though none of them carried the Master Sword, they channeled their power into a skyward strike with the Four Sword. All at once, lightning struck the orbs. 

Sky fused back to one and hissed, the Four Sword they were using was starting to burn again. He tossed it to the side and cradled his hand. He told them all what happened. 

“Wild,” Time took note of the orbs cracks filling the majority of it and the slower attack patterns, “how did you get the Four Sword?”

He pointed upward, “just grab a shard. I don’t know how to explain it, it just reminds me of reclaiming the Master Sword.”

Time hummed and leered at one of the shards. Reaching for it, he recalled the feeling of moving through the sacred realm, the feeling of switching forms. Another Four Sword fell into his hand and Time became four. 

Or three, depending on what the Links could see. Luckily, the Hero’s Shade could use the fact that none of the Fours could see him. With the help of Warriors lifting up the short kid Time to reach one of the orbs, Teen Time, Young Time, and the Hero’s Shade confused the elementals with their irregular attack. 

They fused together and Time’s promptly collapsed. Warriors and Twilight ran over, making sure he was okay. They moved him away from the battle. 

“I thought you told him he couldn’t handle splitting?” Warriors looked to Twilight. 

“He probably thought it was worth the risk,” he answered. 

“Well, ranch hand,” Warriors pointed to the Four Sword at Time’s side, “it’s your turn.”

His eyes grew with fear, “no, again, I nearly killed Wild. Night can’t be allowed back in the open.”

“I don’t like it either, but you can’t control him for one second? He’s a part of you, you must be able to. Besides, we kind of need a sociopath to stab our friend right now.”

Twilight sighed, “if he goes berserk, do not hesitant to kill him. Got it?”

Warriors nodded. 

Twilight reached for the sword and he split. His parts formed with Day glaring at Night before leaving and looking for an opening, Dawn immediately searching to make sure everyone was alright, and Dusk was clutching Night’s arm. 

“If you attack anything else except that thing,” Dusk threatened, “I will make your life and death a living hell for the both of us.”

Night sneered, “I’d like to see you try.”

Whatever went on in Twilight was a mystery, for Night cooperated anyways. There must have been an internal battle that humbled the being made of darkness into submission. If anyone could read his eyes, they would see that there was some real fear from Dusk’s threat. 

Just like before, the orbs were attacked all at once. Twilight’s parts stumbled back together and became one. The orbs were now mostly cracks, one more hit would do it. 

“Legend!” Twilight threw the sword at the last hero. 

He caught it and grinned as his mind was cleared. Olive, the green amused part, looked comfortable. Cobalt, the blue protective part, was ready to defend. Lavender, the purple conniving part, was loving this scheme. And Berry, the red insecure part of him, was smiling. 

“Told you you need me,” Cobalt barred his teeth ferally.

“Not the time for an ego,” Olive commented. 

“Not the time for anything except to fight,” Lavender argued, “quit the chatting.”

“…we can do this,” Berry nodded fiercely. 

Just as this whole mess started, with Legend getting the Four Sword, so it would end. The elementals were practically dead men walking once those four arrived, and the orbs were taken down finally with four good slashes. 

Legend fused and tossed the Four Sword away, which shattered into light again on impact to the ground. He and all the other watched as the orbs fell out of the ground and shattered, leaving behind four elemental stones in their wake. The elementals shambled back together and they became one. The figure from before was laying collapsed on the ground with its cape open, revealing that one leg was made of stone, the other was air, and its arms were made of fire and water. 

The Four Sword dropped beside it, losing its edge and color as the light dulled. 

Out of nowhere, the Master Sword returned to Sky’s hands. 

“Welcome back, Fi,” Sky smiled wistfully, “sorry about Wild, that won’t happen again.”

Then, something that hasn’t happened in years, Fi spoke. The sword pulsed and a robotic voice was heard. 

“Calculating, calculating,” Sky almost dropped the sword out of shock, “new sword spirit detected, permission to enter the Four Sword database?”

The Four Sword pulsed and the Master Sword grew quiet. 

“That thing can actually talk?” Wild choked, “I thought you were lying about that.”

“What did that mean?” Warriors asked. 

“I-I don’t know,” Sky answered honestly, “the only sword spirits I know of are Fi and…another one, I don’t know what she means by the Four Sword spirit.”

“Four Sword administrator accepted,” Fi’s voice returned, “welcome to the envoy of Her Grace.”

The figure’s body glowed a final time, morphing into a smaller form. It looked like Four, the Four they knew, complete with the multicolored tunic and all. There were some differences, though.

He now had golden freckles that reflected in the light. His hair looked stiff and stayed in place more so than normal. At the base of his chest was the gemstone that the figure had and his skin that they could see on each limb reflected the color of the elements he was. The elements didn’t line up with the tunic, so it created a fun clash. His kinstones on his belt were replaced with the four elemental stones. When he opened his eyes, they were white still before fading back to their natural color of whatever suited him at the moment. 

“What happened?” Four groaned, rubbing his forehead as he sat up, “who’s the lady in blue?”

He was looking to the right and above Sky, where no one was standing. 

“No one’s there. Are you okay?” “The name I have been given is Fi.”

“Why can I see Fi?” He noticed the gem in chest and tried to pull it off, but it wouldn’t, “ow! What is this thing?”

“Spirit of the Four Sword, it is your duty to protect the blade you inhabit and trust any masters that may come your way. I have done that for all of my masters, now it is your turn.”

Whatever the others were saying were blacked out by Fi’s voice. It was almost like her words were being projected into his mind and only he could hear them. 

“I am analyzing your behavior and I know you are confused,” she continued, “the Four Sword was a weapon blessed by light and that made it powerful, but it had no way to contain that power. It had no spirit to hold all of the data it needed to function, thus it lashed out. It needed a host: you, Hero of the Four Sword.”

Did that mean?

“You are connected to the blade as I am,” she cracked a rare smile, if ever so faintly, “I am looking forward to working together to protect Hyrule and Her Grace’s wishes.”

And, with that, Fi vanished into the Master Sword, but Four could still tell she was watching. It was like a sixth sense, always being able to read or understand her in any form. 

“-our, Four!” Sky was shaking him, “answer us!”

“I’m okay,” he touched his gemstone absentmindedly, “I think? Fi spoke to me.”

“What did she say?” He looked concerned. 

Four stood up, not feeling tired in the slightest. He picked up the Four Sword, looking at the hilt, now good as new. He tossed it into the air and it exploded into shards, this time they didn’t linger around. Normally he would be worried about his weapon breaking, but he wasn’t. He felt a connection to the blade and he knew he could recall it at any time. 

With all of this new information, his parts were on fire. 

Vio was already thinking about all the experiments they could run on themselves. Sword spirits weren’t common in the slightest, so it was interesting. Could they make more? How much power did they hold? What would happen if they left the Four Sword somewhere without them? Were they immortal? How would splitting work?

Green was worrying about the consequences. If they had to protect the Four Sword and help anyone who would wield it, would they be sentenced to a never ending life of fight Vaati, die, repeat like the Master Sword. He also thought about how uncomfortable the rock in them would feel sometimes. At least he could say no one was a better smith than them, since they were a sword, and the new experiences would be fun. 

Blue was weirdly excited. He always liked fighting, always like swords, and now he was a sword. This is technically the best thing that could ever happen to a constant fighter. 

Red just couldn’t wait to see what the future held. What future heroes they would train alongside and guide. The people they would meet and the parts that they would become. 

The four were in agreement overall: this was something they could live with. 

“None of you are touching my sword ever again,” Four laughed, “seeing as I am now the Spirit of the Four Sword. I will burn you if you pick it up without permission.”

The looks of shock on their face would warm Four’s memories for centuries to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I loved writing this chapter so much! I had the idea to write Four as a corrupted version of Vaati/Four Sword months ago for the final chapter. I then had the thought about if people could get corrupted but dark magic, like Twilight, then why can’t light magic be just as bad? 
> 
> I loved writing all the Links’ parts back for one final battle together. The idea of splitting in quick succession to stop Four came around the same time as the corruption idea. I just wanted a way to say goodbye and let everyone know that they are still there.
> 
> This was an amazing fic to write and I loved every bit of it. Thank you all so much for reading and if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask!


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